Celebrating A Child's Birthday At Home

As many kids have found at this time of year, having a birthday party without friends or other family around is the norm. Making it a special day is still possible, and your kids may find it even more meaningful.

My son recently turned 7 years old, and due to the restrictions throughout the country, we had a very simple and basic celebration at home without a lot of fanfare. My son loved it, and I’m hoping it’s something that he’ll remember for a long time to come.

Normally, we like to go all out on birthday parties for our kids. Large parties, lots of kids, and plenty of stress to make it not feel worth it. But we keep coming back and doing the same thing year after year. That wasn’t possible this year.

With most of the country on stay at home orders, us included, it meant that we had to take a more measured approach to our son’s birthday party this year. Of course, he’s been at home doing school online since the middle of March, so he hasn’t seen any friends for quite some time. That helped in the sense that his friends weren’t asking about his party, and he wasn’t asking if they could come.

However, I’ve also found that kids are actually pretty flexible when it comes to birthday parties, and celebrations in general. As they get older, they’ll have stronger opinions about how things should go, but when they’re younger, they generally get their strongest opinions from how we, as parents, raise them. If we say that we should have a huge party, or lots of people need to be there, then they’ll get it in their head that it’s important.

To make this year special, we let our son set the schedule for what he wanted to do, and when. As long as it was reasonable to do at home, then we would do it. What did that list include for a 7 year old?

• Eating his favorite foods
• Eating his younger brother’s favorite foods
• Having a dance party (actually multiple dance parties)
• Opening presents
• Eating birthday cake
• Playing toys with everyone

Yes - it was very simple, and a very basic list. There was nothing that crazy on the list, and overall, he just wanted to spend time with his family, and those he loves.

Of course, as parents, we did our best to make it fun and special for him. We made sure to dance hard, and play with the toys. We got him the things he wanted, and just enjoyed a wonderful evening together.

This opened my eyes a bit to how far we go sometimes for our kids, when in reality, they can often be satisfied by something much simpler. Our kids want us to play and pay attention to them. They don’t necessarily want huge amounts of people to be around, or tons of presents. While they may like those things when they get them, a simpler approach can often satisfy them as well.

As a parent, I need to scale back what I think my kids want, and work on giving them the love and attention they deserve. At the end of the day, that’s what they really want - a safe and loving home with their family.

You can make your child’s birthday special by asking them what they want to do with the family, and having them plan family activities at home. It shouldn’t be expensive, but it should be focused on your child.