Pater Familias … because I'm your FATHER!

Sad, Glad, Slammed On Birthday Party Eve

March 12, 2010 · Activities | Sad Dad | Suburban Survival

You, too, get torn up about child getting a year older? Does the party help?

Demands of Kiddy Festivities Have Therapeutic Value For Dad

Came to me just now that prep for a birthday party is a balm and mercy, the same sort of way making funeral arrangements helps the bereaved to cope.

No, Nellis, I did not just suggest that our pride and joy getting bigger and the Big D are in the same league, grief- and trauma-wise. But look at the parallels – logistics and shocking expenditures suck time and occupy the mind, so there’s less chance for runaway sadness.  Like, I can’t get so weepy about how Girl Child’s suddenly seven years old and it all goes by so fast and platinum family moments that I would, if I possibly could, drag back into the here and now and relive for all eternity, are gone, gone, gone. And the ones coming up soon will be gone, too. Just like that, like a dream.

And then she’ll be gone, out of the house.

If you want to get totally in my moment, go over to Pater’s Picks , click on the top number on the playlist, Turn Around by Kenny Loggins. Then spring for a buck and download. (No worries, Macweenies, iTunes will suck the Mp3 right up). Screw hip, and to hell with irony. Be open and listen.   

Where are you going, my little one, little one?

Where are you going, my baby, my own?

You’re dyin’, right?

Enough.

Twenty-four hours, ten minutes until this year’s gala, conceived and planned by Girl Child and Minerva. Even though I’m crew, mostly, I’m way into it.  

An Almost-Slumber Party, as Minerva wrote on the home-printed invites with clever little clip art. From 5 to 9, Girl Child and 10 invitees, all in PJs, will…

• Eat a light supper and do the candles and cake
• Go upstairs to the playroom/office/attic and decorate pillowcases with fabric markers (idea knocked off Good Housekeeping site)
• Dance to Taylor Swift, ABBA and a disco mix that sounds like my old way-gay gym in Los Angeles.
• Have a pillow fight
• Get all get cozy on bedding on the floor and watch a Harry Potter – huge in GC’s cohort because, at least in part, that four-eyed kid who played Harry is a major hottie. Popcorn served.

Minerva and I hope to get ‘rents to come a little early for pickup and drink beer and/or Pater’s fabu martinis and get a buzzed, at least a little.

Have I done a tenth of what needs doing? Hah!

Gotta roll. If UPS doesn’t show up with the disco ball, I’m screwed.

So, what do birthdays and crazy kid parties do for you, or to you?          

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