1st Birthday - Party or no party?

[chloelovesdisney]

I think the nicest birthday celebrations are family parties. A Memorial Day weekend birthday barbeque sounds like great fun, balloons, presents, cake and ice cream. Perfection.

 

[HunnyPots]

If his family is there, I'm not going to exclude mine. It's a hoilday weekend. There are kids involved. Dsil has 3 and I have my dd so the kids will play together. That's how the neighbors get involved, because they'll play with the neighbors kids outside who I'm sure dd will invite in for cake, and "ba da bing" party. Seems I'll just have to suck it up, and plan for a party. I do not want to sit around "talking" so I'll now have to come up with time waster things to do, because an hour to kids is like 5 minutes. It's Memorial Day weekend so I'll probably have to barbecue. *SIGH*

We took DD to Disney for her birthday. I think after this birthday, we'll make a family tradition of doing a family vacation/outing on birthdays. I think it's much more memorable and the money isn't spent on entertaining everybody else.

You don't have to do anything you don't want to do. I really don't understand this mentality!
You don't want neighbor kids coming inside? Tell them it's time to go home because your kids have to go inside and visit with family for a while. They can come back out later. No big deal. Serve cake, take some pictures, put the baby down for a nap and tell everyone thanks for coming and goodbye!

 

[phillmolly]

We had one of those huge bday parties, we rented a hall and everything....but, we know it was more for us than for my DS. It took DH and I 14yrs to get pregnant with our DS and it was a celebration for us, that we finally had our baby that we had waited for and wanted for soooooo long! For his second bday we will just have a BBQ or something at the house and just invite family, I am lucky because my DH dosn't really have any family nearby that we have to worry about. For his third birthday I am hoping to take him to WDW! Good luck in you planning!

 

[Bluestars]

Have you ever seen "Everybody Loves Raymond"? Well dmil and dsil are just like Marie. I am the 'butt' of their jokes.

Does your husband know how much this bothers you? He really should speak to his family about this. Maybe he doesn't realize how much this upsets you. If you let your husband know, then hopefully the next time it happens he will say something. You have probably kept quiet to keep the peace. Although if it were me, I would speak up for myself.

Regarding the party, I would suck it up for my husband's sake. Maybe if your family is there, it will be enough of a buffer for you so that you can enjoy the day too.

 

[kirstenb1]

My MIL drives me crazy too. But we celebrate each kids' birthday with pizza and cake. We invite family, but not neighbors (our neighbors are nice, but we're not so close, and I'd hate for them to have to go buy a gift, etc). I usually try to stay busy in the kitchen, when MIL's close by, or I just join into a group conversation about whatever. Of course, a rum and coke doesn't hurt either!