Growing up, my mother would have us invite a few friends, and we'd have cake, ice cream, snacks, party favors and play pin-the-tail-on-the-donkey. When is was a special birthday, such as the 1st, 5th, 10th, 13th or 16th, my parents would have a bigger party with adults, but still held it in the house.

It seems these days, that kid's birthday parties have turned into a competition. Every kid doesn't have parents who can afford gala events with clowns and ponies.


:birthday: :birthday: :birthday:

You think so? Because your parties sound about the same as the ones I had and went to...but even that was like 8-10 years ago.

You think so? Because your parties sound about the same as the ones I had and went to...but even that was like 8-10 years ago.
That's how it seems these days. My husband has eight grandchildren. Their parties are held at bowling alleys, Chuck E. Cheese, miniature golf courses, that sort of thing. I don't think there's anything wrong with it, but seems to be the norm. Heck, some years, we'd have a birthday cake after dinner, with no friends, lol.

Ohhhhh wow. I think up until about my 9th birthday (the last birthday my parents were married -- I turned 9 in '94, and my parents separated shortly after that with the divorce becoming final in early '95, before I turned 10), I had family-type birthday parties. I loved these, because I always got a lot of presents. :) I do remember I got to have more than one birthday party some years, though... I recall my 7th and 8th birthdays being like that. I had one with my friends, and another one with my family both years. Not in the same day, of course. :lol:

From that point onwards, I have to think about it hard. I recall no birthday parties when I turned 10 and 11. When I turned 12, we were visiting family in Denver. So, we had a birthday party for me there and I recall going to a mini-golf course later that night.

My 13th was the ****tiest birthday... Nobody seemed to remember my birthday. I got no presents, either, but I didn't care. It woulda been nice to have had an acknowledgement, at least. And I made quite a few computer screw-ups that day that took a while to fix. Not something I really like remembering. :lol:

My 14th and 15th, I spent with friends.

I got a surprise birthday party when I turned 16... it was a family thing, too. nothing really from that time onwards. Since I turned 17, I've always been taken out to dinner. That's fine, and I actually prefer that.

My 21st last year was pretty interesting... I'm sure you can guess what happened at the end of that night. :rofl:

Since my mom and I have our birthdays a day apart (Mom's is 9/19 and mine is 9/20) and my dad and brother's are 2 days apart (Dad on 8/12 and my brother on 8/14), there have been plenty of double birthdays in our family, mostly our relatives came to our house and we'd have cake, ice cream and presents!

When I turned 11, I had a birthday party at the local skating rink with all my little friends. At 20, I had friends over to the house for an 80s style party.

Now that some of our closest relatives have passed on or have grown up, our birthdays are limited to the immediate family going out to dinner. Then we go back to the house for cake, ice cream and presents. My brother didn't know what to get me for my last birthday. I told him he could wash and wax my car - and he did! Deeds have become more important than actual material gifts. :lol:

We had small family parties. For milestone birthdays, we had bigger celebrations. I prefer small gatherings. I've never been one for big parties.

I used to just invite friends over and we'd play in the yard and have cake.

For my 11th birthday I didn't get ANYTHING. Nada. Zip. Zilch. From that point forwards I stopped having birthday parties. Hell, for my 14th birthday, I had to buy my own cake!

That's how it seems these days. My husband has eight grandchildren. Their parties are held at bowling alleys, Chuck E. Cheese, miniature golf courses, that sort of thing. I don't think there's anything wrong with it, but seems to be the norm. Heck, some years, we'd have a birthday cake after dinner, with no friends, lol.
Ohh, that's what you mean. Yeah, I had a few at bowling alleys and skating rinks...not gonna lie :lol: But not ALL of them.

That's how it seems these days. My husband has eight grandchildren. Their parties are held at bowling alleys, Chuck E. Cheese, miniature golf courses, that sort of thing. I don't think there's anything wrong with it, but seems to be the norm. Heck, some years, we'd have a birthday cake after dinner, with no friends, lol.
We had my son's first three birthdays at home, with family and friends. We had a jolly jumper, barbecue, cake and gift bags. My boyfriend doesn't want to do that anymore, so we had the last two at Chuck E. Cheese. He says it is $$$ well spent since we don't have to cook, clean and organize. All we have to do is go there, greet people, pay for food and take home the presents. I miss the whole birthday party thingy. I understand what he means though. My girlfriend recently had a birthday party for her 4 year old and she was getting ready the day before, the day of the party and the day after she was cleaning her house. It was 3 days of work basically.

When I was growing up, I had great parties. I remember my 6th birthday my mom threw a huge party for me. It was two weeks later that she died.

When I was 7 years old my sister threw me a huge birthday party and lots of my school mates came. I was in ballet school at the time and my cake had a huge ballerina on top with several small ballerinas. I got this beautiful pink, poofy dress. I felt like a princess.

My 15th birthday I had a "coming out" party. It is called a Quincenera. I had this elaborate white dress made. It was gorgeous. I had a church ceremony and a huge party at our home. It is so memorable. My father wore a tux and walked me down the aisle in church. It is a special service with a blessing and mass. I danced with my father, my uncles, my brother...I just had a ball. My father spent so much money on that day and yet, he still bought me a gift...a pearl necklace. I was so stunned. My father was a special man.

I never had a birthday party. :(

I never had a birthday party. :(
NO WAY!!!!! :eek: That is sad. Why? :(

NO WAY!!!!! :eek: That is sad. Why? :(
Well my sister had parties and I always knew how much they cost, so I just told my mom I didn't want one. In reality, I didn't want anyone to spend that much. Also, I didn't have anyone to invite to those sort of things. I was the loaner lol. But my mom says I'm having this huuuuge bash when I graduate from nursing school :D I'm excited for that.

I had big parties pretty much every year till I turned 10. For my 1st and 2nd birthdays, we held it at a local park. Don't remember my 3rd birthday. My 4th birthday, we had it at a restaurant called Toon's (R.I.P. :( ). That place was MADE for kiddie birthday parties, they had an arcade and a little marching band that would play and sing every time it was time to blow out the candles on the cake. Then every year after that, we'd just celebrate with a lot of people at our house. Although we stopped having them after I turned 10, we had another one in 2002 when I turned 14 to coincide with my mom's 50th birthday (Our birthdays are only three days apart). Now we just find smaller, simpler ways to celebrate my birthday. :)

Well my sister had parties and I always knew how much they cost, so I just told my mom I didn't want one. In reality, I didn't want anyone to spend that much. Also, I didn't have anyone to invite to those sort of things. I was the loaner lol. But my mom says I'm having this huuuuge bash when I graduate from nursing school :D I'm excited for that.
And you deserve it!!!!!!! congrats!!!!!!!

How thoughtful of you to think of your family's finances rather than expect a huge party. You know how many kids want extravagant parties? Too many. You are a sweet daughter to think of your family first. :D

All of them consisted of going to the movies. Not surprising eh?

Mostly as a little kid I had big family parties at my house a couple of times I've shared b-day parties with a couple of reletives cause we have a lot of people in our family born in the month of july and maybe 1 friend once. But now in my teen years I have parties with mostly friends now but not so many just like 3 or 4 I'm not big on parties!

hmmm we mostly did parties at places, for friends. we had family parties every year, though.

when i was WITTLE, like 3, 4, 5, we went to Chuck E Cheeses.

when i was 6 i had it at some gymnastics-like place.

7 was bowling (they had some kids birthday bowling thingy).

8 was at home, i think, and we had a home partay!

9 was...karate party.

10 was SLEEPOVER.


aaand after that the kids birthday parties stopped mostly, altthough we went to the movies and my house when i turned 11 and 12.

I never had a birthday party. I never had too many friends, so there was never anyone to invite. Come to think of it, not only did I never have one, but I was only invited to one as a kid.

We would have our birthday parties on a picnic table in the backyard. I remember one year we had Sylvester and Tweetie bird napkin and paper plates. We had the neighborhood kids over, played the usual games. All the kids were dressed up too. Those were good memories.

We didn't have big birthday parties when I was growing up. My mom made a cake and put candles on it for each of our birthdays. And we'd get 2 or 3 presents. I've had big birthday parties for my son when he was little. Once he invited 13 kids from school in addition to all our family members to one of his parties. It was a mad house too. We only did that once. lol!

And you deserve it!!!!!!! congrats!!!!!!!

How thoughtful of you to think of your family's finances rather than expect a huge party. You know how many kids want extravagant parties? Too many. You are a sweet daughter to think of your family first. :D
The kid I take care of at work and his siblings had their 7th party at this place where they have all this inflatable crap that kids can run and jump on. And about 12 other kids. For a 7th. Not 5th, 10th...7th. Ugh.

All I remember is I had one party at McDonald's. Don't remember how old I was tho. The rest were at home and such.

My 13th was the ****tiest birthday...

My 19th was terrible. I was away at a school I didn't want to be at, so I was depressed already. My mom comes up with a cake and takes me to Red Lobster, which was awesome, but then she tells me she may have skin cancer. And then she left me up there. Worst birthday ever. And naturally the one I remember the best.

Once I started sharing my birthday with my sister the birthday was more focused on her because she is so much younger. I remember for her 3rd birthday which was my 17th (1995) we went to Chuck E. Cheese. It was embarrassing. :lol:

Oh man. :lol:

Well my sister had parties and I always knew how much they cost, so I just told my mom I didn't want one. In reality, I didn't want anyone to spend that much. Also, I didn't have anyone to invite to those sort of things. I was the loaner lol. But my mom says I'm having this huuuuge bash when I graduate from nursing school :D I'm excited for that.
That's me now. I'd have no one to invite even if I wanted a party.

My birthday parties were always very simple as a kid--I had the usual ice cream cake and presents. Family members and a few neighborhood friends would come but it was never a huge deal.

For my 16th birthday, my parents basically gave me money and told me to have some fun with my friends :D

Honestly, the best birthdays I ever had were my 19th and 21st. On my 19th birthday, my friends surprised me by throwing me a little party. We pigged out, played some frisbee and had a water balloon fight. It was fun! :) I miss my high school crew sometimes :(

For my 21st, my best friend and a few other of my friends all went out to Pizzeria Uno and exchanged gifts there. I bought my first glass of alcohol legally :D Afterwards, we took a drive out to Mary's Grave and Cedar Beach for some late-night fun (my birthday is in August so the weather was nice).

I haven't had any really exciting birthdays since then.