birthday party

Birthday Party Trouble

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There are several reasons a birthday could lead to trouble. Let’s think of a few:

  • Party is too loud.
  • Underage drinking.
  • Drinking and driving.
  • Stolen presents.
  • Over-the-top antics prompted by too much birthday fun.
  • Rioting when your birthday invitation goes viral (yep, that happened).
  • Pulling out a gun when people don’t sing your girlfriend happy birthday (yep, that happened too).
  • Celebrating your birthday with a dozen or so friends in an Irish pub.

Uhm? What?! Yep, that last one happened in Tajikistan this year, and the birthday boy was fined the equivalent of four months pay!

According to The Daily Mail (Kate Pickles reporting – tee hee — Pickles), it’s against the law in Tajikistan to celebrate your birthday outside of the home with more than family. The law was passed in 2007 to prevent excess spending.

Birthday boy Isayev Amirbek, who was aware of the law, thought he was OK to gather his friends for his 25th, as he and his friends simply brought a cake and spent approximately 540 somoni between them (that’s under $100US). Yet he was fined 4,000 somoni (roughly $640US) for his audacity.

Amirbek claimed at first it was just a friend’s night out, but in court prosecutors proved he’d broken the law against celebrating his birthday in public using photographs of the birthday cake posted on Facebook.

Pickles reported the law limits the number of guests, how much money can be spent and the duration of a gathering. Apparently the law was violated 394 times in 2014!

I can maybe see the point of banning lavish birthday extravaganzas in a struggling economy (although think of all the people hired to make the party possible). Yet getting your friends together at a pub and giving each a piece of cake is a preposterous reason to take someone to court! Surely there has to be a better way to spend the time and energy of police, lawyers and court officials than pooh-poohing someone’s birthday fun.

Birthday Party

Photo credit: / Foter / CC BY-NC-ND

Sayonara Birthday Clowns

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Back in my day the most exciting thing that might happen at a birthday party was to have a clown or magician provide entertainment. Getting to dress up in costume was pretty awesome, too. As was my first and only visit to Chuck e. Cheese’s (until I became a parent).

Today, though, I’ve been to parties where backyards are transformed into a bouncy castle playground or set up with multiple inflatable water slides. And we’re not even talking about the extravagant kinds of part they throw on reality television. Or the great fun you can have throwing an Amazing Race or Survivor-themed birthday party.

But when it comes to entertainment there are also clever new options. A friend of my son’s went to a party where they got to play videogames in a truck – I love this idea for entertaining pre-teen boys and bringing the party to me without messing up my house (which would be so pristine otherwise!).

My new favorite though is the Storm Trooper DJ (seen below) who could judge a lightsaber dance competition. With the new Star Wars movie coming out this Christmas, I think this will be right up the alley of my February birthday boy come 2016.

http://iaf.tv/2015/05/27/dj-stormtrooper-is-available-for-birthdays/

Her 16th was truly a riot.

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Photo courtesy Daily Mail

Photo courtesy Daily Mail

In North America at least, the 16th birthday is monumental. Check out the insanity of “My Super Sweet 16.” The reality shows 15-year-olds and their parents going way overboard for this threshold year party. Kidzworld reports one of the parties cost $203,000 US and that one Florida girl welcomed Ciara to the stage at her big event.

All these kids want to throw the biggest or most memorable party of the year.

Well, they are all trumped by an unfortunate Dutch 16-year-old who posted her birthday party invitation on Facebook and didn’t use privacy settings. The invitation went viral. According to the Daily Mail, her guest list ballooned to 3,000 and that doesn’t include the nearly 600 riot police needed to corral the crowd.

Molly Ringwald’s disastrous 16th aside, I have never before heard of a 16th birthday going as badly as this one did!

Bill Me for Your Birthday?

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med75-001Throwing a birthday party can be expensive. Happily my son has selected a sleepover this year. I’ve decided the savings is worth the insanity that is sure to ensue (and the crankiness to be expected from my sleep-deprived birthday boy the day after).

Yet, anyone who has planned a child’s birthday at a venue knows hosts often have to give the number of guests expected in advance and are charged per person. Of course, since we’re talking about petri dishes of pestilence — I mean children — there can be no-shows.

Sure, this hurts the host’s pocketbook, but with utter shock I report an English mother actually charged another set of parents for their failure to bring a five-year-old to her son’s party. Of course it is surprising the threat of litigation didn’t happen first in the U.S! But the woman even printed out a full-on invoice (shown in The Telegraph story) for approximately $24 US!

The Telegraph editorial didn’t “seek to take sides,” but a columnist in the paper wrote that she would have just paid the bill to “rise above” playground politics.

RSVPs are common sense and letting hosts know of changing plans is good manners. Had I skipped out at the last minute I would feel guilty and would have apologized profusely for the inconvenience. But would I have felt financially responsible? H-E-double-hockey-sticks No.

A good gift to give

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Birthday party for couple believed to be world’s oldest. Pic courtesy of Yorkshire Post

Reading about the world’s oldest couple – he’s 109 and she’s 102 – celebrating their birthdays together, I noticed the proud son’s comment about the joy of the whole family coming together to join in the fun.

This on the same day a friend told me she’s looking for a divorce lawyer. In wondering how the child of the relationship would adapt to the situation, I became curious what advice is available to help divorced parents navigate the challenges of celebrating their child’s birthday.

For children birthdays are all about fun and happiness and being the center of attention. I host a birthday blog, so of course I think this should be true for adults too.

Divorce Help for Parents reminds parents to focus on the child. Other tips are to: act like an adult, create opportunities for the child to celebrate with both parents (not necessarily together) and to include extended family. The advice that stands out to me? “Parents, you have it within your power to control your conflict with the other parent. Please, use it.” Well said.

Amy Ardnt, writing on Huffington Post, says “the best gift divorced parents can give their kids” is putting the kid first and making time spent together pleasant.

On WomansDivorce.com Heidi Woodard shares the efforts she and her ex-husband made to give their son a happy birthday party. The reward? Her son’s comment “I have the coolest parents in the world because you both work together to make me happy.”

Not all of us are going to make it to our 100s. Not all of us are going to make it as a couple. But, we can all make a decided effort to make a child’s birthday the best day it can be.