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Many (recycled) birthday wishes to my son!
I’m not a good birthday-person/wife/mom.
My problem isn’t remembering birthdays; it is the pulling-everything-together-and-making-that-person-feel-special that is my problem.
My husband is a high-maintenance-birthday-guy and I fail miserably every year.
I seem to relay my “blah” for my own birthday on everyone else. I don’t want to be surprised and I don’t want a party or anything else (really). Therefore, no one else should expect a big ordeal on their birthday … except for my kids.
I do my best to make them feel special on their birthday because the other 364 days of each year they are competing with their two siblings for our attention.
But my oldest son was cursed with a December birthday. Talk about extra pressure!
Just like every year, this week he asked me, “Mom, what day are you bringing treats to school for my birthday?”
I stood and stared, completely baffled by this question. “Huh? Oh. Oh!” My eyes popped wide. “Uh, I will have to email your teacher. I don’t know yet.”
I forgot. The most integral detail in children’s birthday party celebrations and I completely overlooked it (thank you, Christmas).
While I sent a message to my son’s teacher - thankfully I wasn’t too late - I decided I should also find a creative person who can bake a Lego cake so it will actually look like a Lego and not a lumpy, lopsided box.
In the midst of planning my son’s birthday party, we attended a birthday dinner for a family friend (I didn’t plan this one either…)
It wasn’t until her cake was brought out - a 3-shape and 8-shape candle gleaming - that I realized I would be needing candles for my son’s cake, too.
“Hey! If you aren’t going to need those candles again, we can use the 8 next week …”
My friend, her sister and her mother all gasped. I had confirmed their suspicion: “She really is no good at this birthday thing!”
They, apparently, are “good-birthday-people;” re-using candles means recycling a birthday wish.
“No! You can’t do that! He needs new candles!” they said in unison. The candles were quickly swept away and put out of my reach.
I don’t think my 6-year-old or 2-year-old has ever had a new birthday candle. What is wrong with reusing candles? I have a drawer full of used candles and even managed to put a recycled 6 and a 1 on my mom’s cake this year (sorry, Mom).
After some finagling around (and maybe a little bribing of my friend’s sneaky daughter), I managed to get my hands on the once-used candles that were doomed for the trash can.
I happen to believe they have many more birthday wishes in them and my son will be happy to blow-out the 8-candle this week.
After all, he’s lucky I remembered to plan his party; having a candle is icing on the cake!
Contact this contributing writer at Motherhoodcolumn@yahoo.com or facebook.com/motherhoodCTC.
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