Ruining My Kids... One Party at a Time!

I can just picture it now. Cormac's in elementary school and one of his friends finds out I'm a party planner, "Your mom plans parties?? COOOL!!" and Cormac says, "Ya...kind of..."

I'm always asking myself- is this business a good choice for my kids? It SEEMS so kid-friendly? I mean, the positives are SO obvious: kids like parties, I throw parties. But the negatives are rather subtle... and I'm starting to wonder about their build up over time...

The 3 Week Early Holiday. I am doing 2 stylized shoots in March, one for St. Patrick's and one for Easter... and they're both 3 weeks early. By the time the actual holiday gets here I am so over celebrating it I'm wondering why people are still wearing green and lace (respectively). The Pinterest moms are coming into their prime on the day of the holiday and I've already packed up all the decor 2 days before the actual holiday... and moved on to the next one that's 2 months away. Cormac had a St. Patty's "party" with all of his friends and I know he had fun... but it wasn't even thrown the same week- I mean, when will he get that this is kind of weird...?!

The Never Ending Baking That My Kids Can Rarely Eat. This month especially I am baking a ton and while yes, I'll let them have a little nibble once in a while and definitely on "party day" I don't want them eating left over cupcakes and cookies the entire month. I mean, can you imagine your mom always baking and not getting to partake in her first fruits every time? That would suck and it even makes me mad at me! No wonder every time I bake he calls me mean.

The"Don't Touch!" Rule. It's torture. I can't even imagine. They see all this stuff all over their house all week and then you wake up and say, "It's PARTY DAY!" but quickly follow it with, "...but not until 4 p.m. when the sun is just right and the photographer will be here". HUH? How is a 4 year old supposed to handle that? Not touch an entire dessert table all day?!

"Party Perfection." Let me explain. Yesterday we had a Tinkerbell Party that Cormac was the only boy invited to. He told me right away he'd wear the Peter Pan costume I made him from his birthday in January. I was excited about his desire to dress up- I've always been a "costumes" girl myself and I love that he shares this with me.

I knew the dog had recently mangled his sword and I was planning to buy him a new one- I just hadn't gotten to it yet. I suggested he try using his Hook sword instead. Ya. Right. And Peter Pan is played by a woman. As if the wrong sword wasn't enough- when we went to get him dressed I realized his tights and moccasin boots didn't fit anymore. I mean- the tights crotch was at his knees (can you say "growth spurt"?) and I couldn't get the boots on to save my life. I casually say to him, "Ok, you're going to wear your green shorts and your new slip-ons and be COOL Peter Pan"! Who was I kidding. I don't know why I thought this would go over so casually- I mean, I am pretty much talking to a mini version of myself. We don't do "COOL" anything. We do 100% as-close-as-we-possibly-can-get-to-the-real-thing-costumes and parties.

Suddenly Cormac is saying, "If I can't be the real Peter Pan, I don't want to go... so let's just go to Target- get some green tights, boots and a good Peter Pan sword and then we can stop by Kate's for the party..." Oh son, if it were only that easy. My patience is waning at this point, I'm trying to calmly explain, "it's Kate's party and everyone mainly cares about her costume so all attention will not be on you..." He's not buying it at all. All I wanted to do was put my kids in their car seats and get over to this party so I can let them loose and actually have some mom time to vent about this child I've created! But I must deal with the "perfect-party" monster and who's to blame-- but me?!! I don't think normal party throwing moms have kids with concerns like this? Am I wrong? Please tell me I am...

"What's the THEME though Mom?!" If I had a dollar for every time I've been asked this in the last year. I've tried to explain it: NOT every party has a theme. But because Cormac pretty much lives in a themed world where he's always asking, "what theme are we shopping for?" it's been a really hard concept for him. He's gone to kid and adult parties in the last year that were just "fun parties" and for some reason, he can't wrap his head around it. I mean, that reason is me- let's be honest. I've tried to explain, "the theme is: BIRTHDAY!" and "We're just doing a fun day at the zoo for his birthday, no theme!" to which he replies without skipping a beat, "But what is the THEME of the birthday??!" and, "Oh cool- he's having a zoo theme!" {bang head against wall} so sometimes I find myself making up themes, "It's a red and yellow balloon theme- how fun!" as we walk in the door, so that he won't do what he did at one party and walk in and say, "I don't see a theme at this party. So what is it??" Because every mom wants a guest at their party critiquing their theme or lack thereof... not to mention a toddler.



Maybe I need to ease up on parties. Maybe I definitely need to ease up on Halloween...  I mean, maybe I need to ease up in general?! Who knows, I've known moms with worse jobs who's kids have turned out fine. I just hope my kids aren't the ones at friends' parties pointing out how the pennants could have been hung this way... or the wooden spoons stamped like this- or the tissue poms fluffed like so... I mean, unless they really didn't fluff those tissue poms properly... then they better give them a full on tutorial.

Feast your eyes on just some of what I'm talking about:

 Oh how he missed those tights and boots...

I mean, if this is all you know- of course you don't understand an un-themed party!

At 3, Cormac started even referring to his "dress clothes" as his "costumes"... Oh dear... a sure sign I'd gone too far concerning Christmas clothing...

And this year I even had our exchange student Mo dress up to match... poor Mo, he has to have such a twisted view on America...

Don't even get me started on custom Easter wear... No mom should stress that much about the right color and size of ric rac.

                               My kids were doomed from a young age to live an eccentric life...

...and when your family keeps close friends with other costume-obsessed families you start to maybe think it's normal....? Newsflash, it's not. Both of the moms in this pics are nuts, just ask them.

At least this year I was able to remind him, "All of our hard work finally paid off Evel! We won 1st place!"... and something told me he didn't care half as much as I did... he just really wanted to get out of that pleather...

 xo Party or Die xo

 kenna