The On Mom has a post about party planning and Pinterest that definitely is worth a read. As for me, I like Pinterest. I think it’s fun, and I use it a fair amount.
I don’t base my life on it.
See, my approach to Pinterest is to save and share things I like. I just want to look at them, not transform my existence. But I keep reading about how Pinterest is increasing “mom guilt” as real-world moms feel their efforts don’t measure up to the perfection on Pinterest.
Sorry, but I think that’s your fault. You shouldn’t be taking pins so personally.
Even in the real world, I’m apt to scale back from what I see. We’ve been to a number of birthday parties for our neighbors’ children and Baguette’s classmates, and they’ve all been nice. We’ve been to several indoor playgrounds, a backyard pool party, and one bounce house/ball pit/wading pool fiesta.
My thoughts? The indoor playgrounds are expensive, but really easy. So that’s tempting, because I don’t have to clean the house. The pool party was nice, but we don’t have a pool. And I am not yet ready to rent a bounce house. I’m just not.
So far, Baguette’s birthday parties have featured family getting together for a cookout followed by cake. We have not invited her friends. Our thought has been that she didn’t understand gifts, and she didn’t know what parties were.
Well, she does know now–and that’s fine. We’re not trying to keep the concept of parties from her. So when her third birthday rolls around, we’ll plan something more child-focused than the birthday parties we’ve had so far.
We’ll invite some of her friends, I’ll make a cake (if I have time), and I’m totally open to buying themed plates, napkins, and cups. I’ll even spring for the coordinating banner.
But why should I worry about whether it matches something on Pinterest? Baguette couldn’t care less, and it’s her party.
Photo by asleeponasunbeam via Flickr.