5th birthday
N turned 5 today and we threw her party here at home. I invited 11 kids. K and I spent all morning getting the house ready, cleaning, and buying food and drinks. I was so tense and worried about the kids getting bored while their parents stood around shaking their heads and checking their watches. My plan was to have the kids play in the backyard for an hour, then come inside for cupcakes and fruit and then go back outside until their parents came to get them or decided to leave. I wanted to have stations with crafts and tried planning an obstacle course. As it got closer and closer to go time, I got more and more miserable. At one point I even considered changing location. I had to call my friend S to get some perspective and she told me to stop worrying and bring some inside toys outside. So I got K to drag the dollhouse outside, which, god bless him, he did without a word even though I knew he was pissed. All along he had been saying the same thing S said. That the kids would just play.
It took a huge leap of faith to trust that K and S were right. As a teacher I am accustomed to planning every minute of time I spend with children. The thought of twelve bored kids beasting around my house and the minutes between three and five slowly ticking by filled me with terror. This is why parents spend so much money on magicians, clowns, or cool locales. But I had run out of time. I had a table outside with adult beverages and snacks, a playmat with pipe cleaners and pony beads, a chalk board, a dollhouse and Barbies, three hula hoops, three tunnels, a hammock, and a bouncy ball. The kids came, played with everything, and when they flagged I fed them sugar, and then they went outside and kept playing. The parents who stayed helped out and smiled. My cousin came too- and when Godfather O is around you can never be too unhappy. Some wine and beer was drunk. The kids loved the beanie baby cats that I put on their party plates. They were excited when they realized they could take them home.
It was a nice time. Will I remember this lesson next year?
It took a huge leap of faith to trust that K and S were right. As a teacher I am accustomed to planning every minute of time I spend with children. The thought of twelve bored kids beasting around my house and the minutes between three and five slowly ticking by filled me with terror. This is why parents spend so much money on magicians, clowns, or cool locales. But I had run out of time. I had a table outside with adult beverages and snacks, a playmat with pipe cleaners and pony beads, a chalk board, a dollhouse and Barbies, three hula hoops, three tunnels, a hammock, and a bouncy ball. The kids came, played with everything, and when they flagged I fed them sugar, and then they went outside and kept playing. The parents who stayed helped out and smiled. My cousin came too- and when Godfather O is around you can never be too unhappy. Some wine and beer was drunk. The kids loved the beanie baby cats that I put on their party plates. They were excited when they realized they could take them home.
It was a nice time. Will I remember this lesson next year?