3 tips for surviving a child’s birthday party

Well yes, children grow up. We might say to ourselves every day “oh-la-la, how quickly it goes by” or ” the days pass like machines “, we are always surprised when D-Day arrives and we see our child, who is no longer a child, blowing out the candles.

Personally, I experienced it again this weekend, as my daughter celebrated her fourth birthday and I wanted, as a good loving and attentive mother, to organize her a birthday party worthy of the name.

Thanks to this event I was able to draw up a list of the things that are best avoided when you want to start organizing this type of party, so as not to throw yourself on the box of Prozac before the end of the day, as unfortunately was my case. Don’t thank me, it’s a gift.

Tip #1 for organizing a birthday party: choose your guests carefully

Here’s the ultimate rule: Don’t invite the entire school to your house for your loved one’s birthday.

There is a well-known adage that helps determine the number of guests: “Ideally” the number of guests should be equal to the age of your child.

That is, if your child turns 4, it is advisable to invite only 4 people, and you will only have to manage 5 children (including yours) during the afternoon. .

Do you think it’s not enough? Let’s calm down, your bacon is not Kim Kardashian, she doesn’t need to have her whole class in kindergarten to be happy.

Because it’s nice to want to invite everyone, but you risk quickly becoming overwhelmed and, at the end of life, wanting to drink shots of vodka to keep up.

Then, if the king or queen of the party wants to invite just a few friends: so much the better! Don’t force him to invite more people to reach the ideal number, it makes no sense to push on social relationships, for that he will have all the time later.

And if you think I’m exaggerating in wanting to limit the number of guests: try to visualize the atmosphere of a 50 m2 apartment with five children addicted to sugar. Personally I didn’t come here to suffer eh.

Tip no. 2 to manage a birthday snack: bHow to choose the location of the party

Yes, because it is a significant aspect: you have to anticipate the place where the action will take place. If you’re lucky, your baby was born in spring or summer, or even early autumn, and it’s entirely possible to hold the party outdoors, in a garden or public park.

If you’re damned like me, your son was born in January and his birthday falls RIGHT on the only day it snows (but not fresh snow that you can have fun with, no, I’m talking about slippery snow that turns to snow).brown because we live in Paris).

There you have less choice: you are forced to do it at home. So yes, you could also rent an outdoor space, but that often costs an arm and a leg.

So here’s my second piece of advice: if you have the chance, try to organize the party outside your small apartment and make sure that the children have the good idea of ​​being born in a season other than winter.

Tip no. 3 to survive a birthday party: bto choose your weapons

So no, I’m not talking about guns that hurt children, I’m not that kind of person, thank you very much. When I say “choose your weapons,” I’m referring to what you have planned to liven up Jean-Kevin’s birthday party.

Will you do the work alone or with parent 2? Unless you’re going to hire someone whose job is that? Will you organize coloring and sticker-gluing workshops or will you let the children play freewheeling in Marie-Cystitis’ room?

Your decision will obviously depend on several factors, in particular your mental capacity to want to handle several kids who have eaten too much candy and who are as excited as Trump about the attack on the Capitol. But that’s not all, because you will also have to take into account the number of guests, the age of the children and your budget.

Yes, the budget matters, since it will allow you (or not) to intermittently hire a show clown to liven up the party, or a storyteller who also knows how to create animals out of balloons.

Personally I had a budget close to 0 and I decided to organize everything with my daughter’s father. We divided the tasks as best we could.

She supervised some of the children in our daughter’s room, who were literally turning over everything that could be returned, and me in the living room, sitting on the floor with the children coughing on me, to lead a workshop on how to color animal masks with pastelli” which had very little success, it must be admitted.

Children are less and less creative, it’s crazy! (Not true, my workshop was really poor, I understand them, I didn’t feel like coloring either).

There you have it, these were the three tips you should know before starting to organize your child’s snack!

Oh yes, and one last piece of advice: avoid putting pressure on yourself. As long as there are candy, apple juice, friends and balloons, everything will be fine. In fact, this is the basis for a successful birthday party.