Kids’ parties: Love ’em or hate ’em?

I just read a fascinating post over at Asia Vu about how gift-giving in Korea is a little different from what we’re used to. The Koreans take a very practical approach and so it’s perfectly normal to give toilet roll or laundry detergent as a house-warming gift, or rice as a participation gift.

And I found myself thinking, how very useful indeed – wouldn’t that take a lot of the stress out of selecting a gift? Especially when you’re buying a present for someone you’ve never met before, like I was yesterday.

LB got invited to a party – his first that was in no way connected to his big brother – and, though I didn’t know the mum, the child, or any of the guests for that matter, taking him along seemed the right thing to do.

I popped into our local Early Learning Centre to buy a gift and went through my usual conundrum of finding something that was age/gender appropriate, wouldn’t drive the parents crazy, wouldn’t cause injury and cost enough so I wouldn’t look stingy but wasn’t overly expensive.

If we were in Korea, I perhaps could have bought a pack of diapers from the supermarket – not only easy peasy, but also guaranteed to be useful.


Anyway, this morning as we were getting ready for the birthday brunch, it became clear LB had gotten out of bed on the wrong side. He wasn’t happy at all. We managed to navigate the getting dressed part (which can take 20 minutes or more as he rejects all the outfits I pull out), but the tantrum trigger turned out to be which car we took.

“You’ll get cake,” I told him, to bribe a kicking-and-screaming LB to get into the car he didn’t want to ride in.

And so perhaps it was my fault that when we arrived, he made a beeline for the three-tiered, homemade cake and refused to move.

What could have been


So much for meeting other mums – I had my work cut out for much of the party guarding the cake to make sure LB didn’t start devouring the frosting.

But, despite his unsociableness today (which really made me wonder why on earth I’d bothered to bring him), we did manage to make an impression. The moment LB had been waiting for arrived – Happy Birthday was sung and the cake was cut. In his excitement, LB ran over – at the last second taking a tumble and crashing headlong into the cake table.

The cake wobbled precariously. The mum who’d lovingly made it diplomatically carried on cutting slices, while I scooped up LB and peered at the bump on his forehead.

Thank goodness, the cake didn’t go flying – and thank goodness they didn’t open our present later to find a pack of diapers.

PHOTO CREDITS: Free Clipart; zazzle.com; Clipartoday

4 thoughts on “Kids’ parties: Love ’em or hate ’em?

  1. You never know, he probably found it strange going without his brother and that’s why he was in a bad temper. Ours always behave atrociously when one is at a party and the other isn’t – it’s always a tantrum trigger. Glad he didn’t destroy the cake! Here, I find people always go big on presents – even if it is a cheap and plasticky present, it always comes in a huge box or bag. I sometimes take smaller things (though usually carefully selected) but then feel bag seeing our tiny present next to all these huge ones.

    • You hit the nail on the head Alex – apart from wanting to go in the ‘fast car’ not the 4×4, he was mad because Max wasn’t coming – I’m really appreciating having two boys now..isn’t it lovely that they do everything together? (until they fall out, of course!)

  2. Thanks so much for the mention! I promise to do some research on Korean children’s parties and let you know if the kid presents are as practical as the adult ones. I’m so sorry LB was having a hard time – for both him and you. Son#2 was always very picky about clothes as a toddler/preschooler, and it drove me mad. It would have been fine if I’d understood what the parameters were – blue things, cotton, shiny, Thomas the Tank, whatever – but there was no rhyme or reason to his picky-ness. If he didn’t want to wear something, it was summarily dismissed as ‘not cool’ without explanation, and the chosen item was often nearly identical to something else that had been rejected. Not that he’s any better as a teenager, but at least he doesn’t have tantrums any more!

    • Exactly – no rhyme or reason at all! He says tops are ‘too small’ or ‘broken’ – tries several on, which we then take off, put away again and finally, after an infuriating length of time, he picks something – which normally means he goes to bed fully dressed – and the other day went out in pyjama bottoms! Of course it makes sense that teenagers are picky too – but without the tears, thank goodness!!! My patience has already deserted me!

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