Family - Birthdays..what a silly idea

I was never comfortable with birthday parties, even when my children were celebrating it. But I never knew why I did not like the idea. Something was bothering my all the time. One of my kids is popular in her class. She gets invited 20 times a year, which means we have to buy presents 20 times. What an expensive ritual. The kids basically see each other everyday at school. Yet, 20 times a year they have to see each other somewhere else, and pay for such visitation. Most, if not all the time, such birthdays are driven and planned by the mothers. We, the fathers, are too busy with more important things. But we have to cough up the cash for the gifts. Something is just not right about it.

About 2 years ago, I made a decision. My kids will not celebrate their birthdays any more. There will not be any party. Instead, I decided to give them a gift for their birthdays that is worth the amount of money that will take to stage a party. The kids agreed to that, without putting any kind of protest. I was relieved. But I still was not happy about this whole ritual called birthdays or even this new arrangement with my kids.

Today, I know why I was never comfortable with the whole thing.

Birthday parties, what for? It isn't that my kids or any kid have achieved anything other than they became older. Something that they cannot do anything about. In fact, when they are in their 40s, they will not like to remember that they are getting old. You see, every living creature on this planet goes through this day once a year. There is nothing special about it any more.

So today, I decided that my kids are not going to get any presents on their birthdays too. Unless they scored above 95% in 5 subjects at school.

They will be sad when they hear of this decision.