The other day I was talking to one of the mothers at the kids’ school about whether she would be attending an upcoming classmate’s birthday party. The mother announced triumphantly that she would be boycotting future birthdays until further notice. The idea certainly had its appeal. Tony once inquired exasperated, “Do we have to go to EVERY party, just because we were invited?” To which I answered indignantly, “Of course!” Now I’m not so sure…

With four children in school, an average class size of 20, that means about 80 potential birthday parties over a twelve month period. So its no wonder that there are times when we have 2-3 birthday parties to attend in just one weekend.

The upsides to the classmate birthday party…

Socialization: This is a chance for the kids to get to interact outside of school.

Networking (aka Adult Socialization): This is a chance for me to have some adult conversation away from my business interactions.

Fun: It’s a fun activity I didn’t have to execute.

Now for the downsides to the classmate birthday party…

Gift Buying: Yet another gift to buy. I’ve resorted to buying up five of the same gifts when I find a good deal, unisex toys when I can. Otherwise, I stock up on the typical car gift for boys and pretend pet gift for girls. Every once in a while, I’ll throw in a dinosaur for the girls, because I know growing up I preferred to play with robots to Barbies.

Time Lost: The mere effort of remembering there is a birthday party coming up sends me into a state of anxiety for fear I should forget about it and miss it, 1 hour spent, check! Between buying a gift and actually getting to the party and back home again I’ve spent more time on the road than at the actual party, 2 hours spent, check! Parties these days last 1 1/2 to 2 hours long, unless it’s at our house, then we have one of those unspoken invitations that have a start time but no end time, 2 hours, check! My day is already short the necessary hours to get anything done, so the time issue counts as two!

The jury is still out on whether we’ll attend ALL birthdays. Maybe we’ll limit our kids to one classmate birthday party per month. Or maybe we’ll just continue to keep going to them all. Hmmm, that saves us spending any time thinking about whether we should or not. Wish I had come to that conclusion sooner…