Thursday, March 1, 2007

Birthday parties gone wild?

Talk about raising a generation of narcissistic children makes me think
of one way in which our culture has surely gone overboard: The birthday party.

Over the years, I've written about birthday parties more than once, the message always being, throw a party, not a production. Now Bill Doherty, a researcher at the University of Minnesota, and a group of fed-up parents in the St. Paul area, have launched a citizen action group called Birthdays Without Pressure. Their hope is to start a national conversation about
the difficiulties birthday party excess can cause. Aside from the expense and stress parties can put on parents, the over-the-top party just may be one of many factors that feed into the creation of indulged kids.

Here are just a few examples Doherty's site cites:
Half birthday parties (like 9.5 years) are becoming the fashion in Chicago, so that if Johnny is unfortunate enough to have a winter birthday, he can have an outdoor summer party too.

Parents are now registering on Amazon.com for their children's
birthday parties.

The Associated Press reports on a Florida family that rented a
cougar for their 7 year old’s birthday party. The result was not funny: the animal mauled a four year old guest.

What's happening to the birthday party in the Boston area? If you have a story to share, I'd love to hear it.

Posted by Barbara Meltz at 09:28 AM

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