Planning a birthday party for your child shouldn’t be more dangerous than putting together a corporate merger, but here we are. Sometime between all the Pinterest boards filled with incredible dessert tables, and your Instagram friends posting stories of their suffocating balloon displays, it seems like all parents are over-exhausted from attempting to create the “perfect” birthday celebration for their children.
The pressure is real, and social media is seeped with it. When you look at party displays, they look more composed in a professional photo shoot than a habitat for a birthday gathering. All together they seem impossible to duplicate—handcrafted decorations, handmade cake decor, party favors, additional entertainment—that is, unless you were either planning a big wedding reception or hired a professional party planner.
You see, the downside to all of this is that the moment the birthday closes, parents report feeling “relieved” more than anything else.
When Party Planning is Your New Job.
The modern-day party has evolved, requiring multiple meetings to research event themes, source decorations that compliment each other, even to coordinate a table display as far as napkin color. The kid’s birthday parties of the past (one cake, games, even a couple favors) has become a full time job of event production; one that requires ms excel, various vendor calling, and overseeing a series of elementary project management concepts that most professional event planners are impressed by.
A unique irony is—while each parent is trying ‘to create loving memories for everyone’ we are all stressed trying to closely ensure they watch their child have a single moment of bliss. Which ultimately results in parents feeling generally frazzled instead of basking in the joy of their child’s special day. One of the major pitfalls is when people try to do everything themselves, from baking intricate cakes based on a theme to making decorations, to organizing everything. Doing it yourself is wonderful, but it can be exhausting, especially if you’re coping with work shifts, other children, and everyday life.
The Instagram Effect on Family Celebrations
Social media has dramatically changed the way some parents think about and have children’s parties. A typical celebration that was once strictly a family affair has turned into a public performance, where parents feel pressured to document it all for publication, and then feel inadequate unless the party meets an expectation, fueled by the exaggeration of the perfect photo.
The new reality is an unsaid competition to see who really is the best party planner. There is a fear that if their party doesn’t mirror the Pinterest or Instagram party it will be judged as cheap or boring. This immense pressure causes parents to overspend or make themselves miserable in order to replicate a complicated setup they have seen on somebody’s Instagram feed.
While the children remain perfectly unaware of the adult’s anxieties, research shows that children often care little about matching colors or professional looking photos and more about just playing and celebrating with their friends.
Honest Ways to Maximize Enjoyment and Minimize Stress
To truly enjoy your child’s party, you must shift the emphasis away from perfection and to relationships. This does not entail lowering standards; rather, it emphasizes being intentional where the time and efforts are spent.
Families have had great success narrowing it to one or two elements they ere doing and simplifying everything else. This may look like splurging on a great cake with store-bought decorations, or investing in wonderful entertainment but just serving simple finger foods instead of a fancy menu.
Professional services can transform the experience and reduce some of the planning stresses that come with celebrations, and they don’t have to be expensive. There is a whole range to choose from, from full-service party planners to individual contractors who are responsible for particular things. Some parents have even seen benefits to outsourcing Childrens Party Entertainment Melbourne services because it allows them to be hands-off and focus on other aspects of the celebration, and still know the kids would have fun.
Timing of decisions is also very important. Making choices too early often leads to overthinking everything and second-guessing every decision. On the other hand, cutting things too close puts unnecessary pressure on host. Most experienced parents tend to settle on somewhere around four to six weeks to plan. But then again, it also depends on how elaborate (or simple) the celebration is.
Reframing Success for Family Events
Another willingness to change might involve how success at a party is counted and/or measured. Instead, to count likes and compare décor details to someone else’s party – focus on more substantive ways to gauge success.
Was your child special and celebrated? Did they have fun with their friends? Did other family members have a chance to relax and enjoy the event together? These pieces are worth more consideration than whether everything was Pinterest perfect.
In fact, some of the malleable parties are those party that definitely do not go as planned — the cake that tips over, the rain that means you have to take everyone inside, or game that turns into a completely different game inadvertently, is usually what a family remembers and laughs at later.
Creating Traditions That Are Right for Your Family
Instead, of exhausting yourself in a different way every time – many family’s try and find peace with a few “things” that work for their family and celebrate together the same way each time. This means celebrating with the same venue, cake flavor, or activity again – from year-to-year – all the while looking forward to precipitating celebrations.
Traditions are “all the rage”, and relieve some of the burden from someone else having to take a decision. Children also gain predictable pleasure when they recognize some of the details and know what to expect — as opposed to never-ending novelty.
Balance in Family Celebrating
The most defining family celebrations are when parents remember they are throwing a party for their child (not because it is documented on any social media platform, and other adults can also see) – this is liberating. Families can think in terms of their values, budget, and energy level, along with their child, instead of wanting to appease someone or something else.
A child’s party should facilitate the joy of the family that celebrates together; however you finish planning may signal to parents, “this does not sound like fun” or “I fully dread this”, or “this is too complicated”.
Children do not differentiate from fairly simple planning and can identify when they adults experience heightened or decreased stress for a hundred different reasons. Children understand how they get love, feeling celebrated, and how they maneuver so many people together who love and/or care about them – they don’t notice the detail. Everything else is really decoration!