As I mentioned the other day, I am in the process of organising a special summer party for my little girl, whose actual birthday, thanks to her thoughtless parents, is rather too close to Christmas! And so the saga begins …
We are trying to be environmentally friendly in our house, so that unfortunately rules out the ‘quick fix’ whizz round the supermarket to pick up disposable plates, cups, cutlery, etc, plus plastic party bags and cheapie plastic toys from China to go in them! We’re also trying not to give the children too much junk food, so that rules out the easy options of bags of crisps, chocolate biscuits and the dreaded Haribo sweets! (Although that’s more to do with the horror of hyperactive children afterwards, to be fair!) But before you start thinking that I’m all “holier than thou”, I’ve realised that the biggest problem with children’s parties is the competition. Between mums, or perhaps I should say between parents. At the end of the day, I secretly (or not so secretly now!) want every child who comes to my child’s party to go away saying it was the best party they’ve ever been to! How crazy is that? I mean, does it really matter?
Hmmm, unfortunately, yes it does. But I don’t think it’s all about me wanting to be perceived as ’super mum’ though. Deep down, I realise that the effort my mum went to over my birthday parties was a sign to me of how much she loved me … and I still remember, and talk about, the cakes! A teddy bear covered in fluffy buttercream icing, a butterfly with a Fudge bar body, a Hansel and Gretel house covered in sweets, a Dougal (from the Magic Roundabout for anyone of a different generation!) with a homemade chocolate button for his nose. And then, when I was a bit older, the best of the lot – a heart-shaped pink pavlova oozing raspberries and cream! All courtesy of Family Circle magazine, I believe!
So now, as a busy working mum, what do I do? Accept that I can’t do everything and that no child will care if the cake is homemade or not as long as it’s sticky and sweet? Or stay up past midnight for the next week or so to ensure that my little one has the same sort of memories as I do … and knows how much her mummy loves her? What do you think?
Anyone got the Family Circle recipe for a butterfly cake?
Tags: children's parties, birthday cakes, Family Circle, pressure, competition, junk food, party bags
