On Sunday, I went to my four-year-old cousin’s birthday party. And when I got home I started thinking about how when I was his age I had two birthday parties, one with my friends and one with my family. His was a combined one, with friends and family, and that is what most people do nowadays because it is less expensive and our economy is in an umm… slight recession. Back when a single 8″ cake wasn’t almost $15, it was easier to celebrate two birthday parties. I have to say, I always much preferred the friend birthday parties. I mean, yeah family is VERY important, but family can also be the most embarrassing. Not that embarrassing isn’t always bad, wait yes, embarrassing is always bad. ALWAYS!!!
Also, family birthday parties can get dorky. Sure, they are fun when you are five, or six, or possibly even seven; that doesn’t mean they are fun at twelve, or thirteen, or fourteen. Having a small get-together with your closest family on your birthday night is fun, especially if cake and ice cream are involved. But, if you have more that say five or so family members, it starts becoming more family-birthday-party-ish and less small-get-together-with-a-couple-close-family-members-ish.
It is always important to see all of your family members for your birthday, but not all at the same time. Especially if you are a teenage girl, because your body is going through all sorts of changes, physical, mental, and emotional, and large crowds can cause your emotional hormones to swell and cause moodiness. At least I find that in smaller crowds, moodiness stays to a minimum. Specifically with family members, I don’t know what it is, but there is something about family members that causes my moodiness to swell, maybe it is that I feel more comfortable around them. I don’t know, maybe I am crazy, but I find that large family crowds cause arguments and and moodiness and embarrassment. I find keeping all of those things to a minimum makes for a very happy birthday.