OK, so since we've moved to the village, our expenses for yearly birthday parties has at least tripled. Everyone on the court is very friendly and sociable and are constantly attempting to include us in all of the events - backyard barbecues, pool parties, court birthday parties...The list goes on! While I cannot even begin to express how much I appreciate the sentiments of being made to feel like we fit in and are a part of the "family" I also wonder how we would be perceived by the group if we were to decline the invitations.
As a matter of fact, the weekend after we first moved into the house, we were invited to the neighbours four year-old's birthday party. Now, sure, if we'd lived here for years and knew the history of all the kids on the court it probably would have been good times. Here's the problem though, CJ and I are both notoriously terrible with names and could barely remember the parent's names let alone which kid was which and who belonged to who. We decided against going and thankfully bum-bum really was not feeling well, nor were either of us but really, the main reason we decided against going was because the activities, although designed for pre-schoolers, were still too old for our little man.
We have a 17 month old (it was his 17 month-aversary yesterday by the way!) He is the youngest on the court and obviously when we attend these kinds of things he is always the baby of the group. That means the rest of the parents are sitting around drinking and enjoying themselves while we are busy running after bum-bum making sure that he's not either getting run over by the bigger kids or literally shooting his eye out with one of their toys.
Our neighbours have all been awesome, but especially the ones to the East of us. They have a garage full of things that mommy neighbour isn't ready to part with yet, but she is more than happy to share while the boys are all out playing (apparently it's the joke around here that no one seems capable of producing a girl - out of 8 houses there is only 1 girl.) Bum-bum is in absolute awe of the big kids - he wants to do everything they do but sometimes when we're at these functions I just feel bad for him. I feel like we're the odd ones out as well because I don't get to sit and socialize with them - if we were all in our backyard where I know that bum-bum isn't going to drown in a pool, or fall down a steep slide or off a high ladder I wouldn't worry so much.
How does everyone else deal with the birthday party for an older child syndrome? Am I out on my own here??
I always thought that we could fit into any situation - that we would always find something that we could feed the bum, and we could always find something that would keep him occupied. I guess what I'm learning now, is that there really are some situations that just aren't appropriate for a small man - if only because it's not fair to keep running after him and keeping him from doing the things that he sees all the bigger kids doing. Why dangle the carrot from the branch if you're never going to cut it down and give it to them, right?
I'm interested to see how other people deal with the awkward age situtation....
1 comment:
Taking Cakes to a party is one of my least favourite things to do.
You're gonna laugh at me...but what I would do is get a babysitter and go to the parties without him. That way, you can drink and chat as much as you like!
You can also have people over to your place.
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