The Almost Birthday Failure

Have you ever had those moments as a parent when you feel like you have to be the worst mom ever? I have those occasionally. I had one recently.

On the way to church Sunday night my son said, “Mom! Do you know what happens in eight days?” I thought for a minute and then I felt an overwhelming sense of anxiety hit me like a ton of bricks. I said, “Yes”. He said, “Well, what”? I said, “It’s your birthday”.

Now, I hadn’t really forgotten that his birthday was coming up, but I completely put off thinking about it. Lucky for me he isn’t too picky about things. We can do big birthdays or we can do little birthdays, and so far he doesn’t seem to mind either way.

So, in a last minute scramble (last minute for me anyway) I initiated a plan and we now have a birthday party planned. Well, we have a place to have it and people invited and a cake ordered. I still need to get a few things and will have to pick up the cake and ice cream on Saturday morning on our way to the party.

I keep feeling like a terrible mom to think that I came so close to not doing anything for his birthday. I feel like had he not mentioned it, it may have turned out that way. But then I keep reminding myself, that it’s ok. Nothing has to be planned for a month in advance for it to turn out just fine (Although, that goes against the inner most planner that I am).

I actually think this will turn out to be a great party. We invited the kids from church to come and most of them I think are going to come. That in itself will be a great thing for him. We have had parties before where we have invited kids, but never really had many show up. So, I think he will have a great party, even if it is low key and quickly thrown together!

What do you think? How much do you think should go into a kids birthday party to make it a special day for them?

What are some fun birthday parties that you have thrown for your kids?