If you were one of the nearly 10 million viewers who tuned into to watch the season premiere of “Jon and Kate Plus 8,” then you may have observed a striking fact: Each child that was invited to the sextuplets’ fifth birthday party brought along SIX presents.
Imagine being the parent of a young birthday guest:
Kid: Mommy, I got invited to Alexis/Hannah/Aaden/Collin/Leah/Joel’s birthday party. Yeah!
Mother: I’m sorry honey, but we just refinanced our home so we can pay for food and water. I don’t think we have enough money leftover to buy six birthday presents… (Under her breath) for filthy rich kids, whose party is being paid for by a cable network.
If you watched the show you may have also witnessed another striking fact: Not one single gift was opened during the party.
This oversight may have been intentional given the fact that the party was staged for the sake of show, and the fact that mass chaos would have likely erupted given the truckload of gifts the sextuplet’s scored, but still, it begs the question: Do you make gift opening an integral part of your child’s birthday party?
When I was growing up, present opening was one of the highlights of a kiddie party… and not just for the birthday boy or girl. From my experience other kids enjoy looking at (and subsequently playing with) some of the birthday loot as well.
However, recently, I’ve noticed that at the majority of the kiddie birthday parties I’ve attended with my preschool daughter, the gift opening free for all has been mysteriously eliminated.
Which is not to say that these parties came with a “No gifts please” request on the invitation; rather, we shopped, we bought, we wrapped and we presented (we being me), but left without getting to see the birthday child’s reaction to our selection during a gift opening ceremony.
I realize that some parents may choose to have their birthday child open his/her gifts in private, so as to reduce the number of tears shed by young guests who have yet to tame their inner green-eyed monster. However, in doing so, they are also robbing children of the chance to see how their gifts made someone happy.
My daughter (as young as she is) puts a lot of thought into choosing presents for her pals (hey, five minutes is a long time for a preschooler), and as a parent I take pride in the fact that she gets excited about being involved in the process. I think it’s important for her to choose a gift that she knows her friend will really like, as it begets equally important lessons in sharing and considering others’ feelings.
So, why ditch the present opening portion of a kiddie birthday party?
I say leave it in. Let the birthday kid shred, tear and smile. Let the guests ooh, ahh and get ideas for their next birthdays.
Then, distract the entire lot of them with a huge chocolate cake and mounds of ice cream.
What do you think of gift opening at kiddie birthday parties? Yea or nay?
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