This past Saturday, I turned fifteen years old. Now that I have aged another year, I am just bit more educated in the world. But I’m not here to talk about what I know, I’m here to talk about birthdays. Birthdays are important, but everyone has their own opinions on them.
My thoughts on birthdays are presumably middle of the road for your average American. They aren’t massive overblown parties, but they are something important. There are two major parts to a successful birthday party.
- The first of the two parts is the family party. As a younger child, it is the more important part and generally should be a big thing. As a younger kid, it was always parents, grandparents, great grandparents, aunts and uncles, and my great aunt and uncle who lived nearby. It was large and always organized by my parents. At the same time, it wasn’t massive. it still happened at my house, it was only a few hours, and I don’t come from an overly large family, so there isn’t a whole ton of family there. It was just a fun way to celebrate. As you get older, though, it should diminish in importance. By now, it is just a dinner and dessert with my siblings, parents, and aunts and uncles in town and another set who live about 30 minutes away. It is more of just a night where I can pick the dinner and receive presents.
- Now, here is part two out of two: the party with friends. The importance of this is pretty much inverse to the other party. Personally, I think the two should never be combined, as it would be too hectic. A party with friends at a younger age is a smaller outing with kids getting together via their mothers planning and having a planned play date that has cake involved. At my age, it is a bunch of friends hanging out until the early A.M. and then falling asleep around the house. There may also be stuff like mini golf, the movies, or even paintball involved. It is a fun and somewhat epic night.
Birthday parties are a fairly important part of growing up. They are most importantly a family celebration at young ages, while they serve more to bond friends later in life. Most of all, do them how the birthday boy or girl wants the party done (within reason), because it’s his or her day, not yours.