Birthday parties are nt so bad.

One more time I read anywhere about Children's Birthday parties and how parents screw it up, I'm going to scream. What are the options anyway? Pray tell me whats the perfect birthday party for a one year old and I ll go back in time and do the same for my daughter. So your child turns one. The first birthday is special and its not going to come everyday. So the plan is to celebrate. But how? She does nt go to school so not much children to invite. So it has got to be an adults party with few children here and there. Gotta feed them. Cant bother to cook. Too many people so cant have it at home. So a hotel it is and a dinner buffet. Cant skimp on food either. Gotta have some decorations. Bring on the balloons and the ribbons. Gotta keep the children a little busy, so arrange a caricaturist. So you hear theres a guy who takes care of decoration and arranges a caricaturist, you hire him. Buy return gifts for all the kids you expect to attend. Get a special cake. A white forest, egg less, awesome, very expensive cake with a picture of Noddy on it. Apparently the cake guy has never seen noddy in his life because the picture looks like your teenage cousin if you squint your eyes and look at it upside down! Anyway, so the D day comes. You can never predict how your one year old is going to behave. NEVER. She might cry the whole time. She might smile the whole time. She might go to sleep. She might be really excited. She might be cranky or she might be happy. So you gotta take the chance. You dress her in a non frilly, non itchy, plain, soft, pink frock. Keep on telling her that its her birthday and its special and we are going to celebrate. God only knows if she even understands. So the party goes on fine, she actually enjoys the balloons, excited by seeing the kids, the happy birthday song, cake cutting etc... But all these were not for HER. Shes just the reason. Its all for ME who has turned one as a mother. Its MY idea of a perfect birthday party. Its what I wanted to do. Agreed that the kid is too young to know, but I ll always remember the party with fond memories.
"Remember the crisp Jalebis with Ice cream for dessert? Never had such great jalebis ever after!"
"Remember how Aunt G was raving about the cake and how thoughtful of us to have ordered an egg less one?"
"Remember the caricature of your mom with a ladle in her hand standing in the kitchen? That was hilarious!"

Anyway, what I am trying to say is we have children because we want them not because they want to be born. Who in their right minds would want to come into this sick world anyway? So why nitpick on the parties? I mean theres no pleasing the crowd. One of my friends threw a birthday party for her preteen son in a hotel lavishly and we were like "Its so unnecessary". And another friend invited a huge group, cooked herself for all of them and had the party at a community center. People were like, "shes so stingy"! Another couple donated some money to charity and had a quite time with their child at home and we were like "Poor Child!" There no right way, is there? At least for the first birthday. Now that Ashu is going to turn 2 pretty soon, Im already picking my hair wondering what to do. I have nt had time to make friends here and I have only met a few people. So is it really necessary to invite people whom you barely know for your daughters birthday party? Should we have a party at all? Should we just take her out somewhere she ll enjoy? Again, all my theory of what she ll like. And this pattern will continue all her life whether she likes it or not. Ask me, I know. My parents did nt exactly throw a wedding I wanted!