Creating birthday rituals your kids will love

Birthdays are a big thing in our family

It’s a time to make each person feel special and we’ve developed some rituals over the years. 

The thing that really strikes me is that whatever age they kids are, they STILL like things to be done in the same way.

Every year

I think the two key factors are that kids like things to be

- Predictable

and

- For us to make a fuss of them and put in a lot of effort.

I hear you groan under the weight of responsibility for raising kids and the idea of putting in lots of extra effort.

I get it. 

Now, here’s what I don’t mean –

Buying them EVERY single thing they want for their birthday in case we risk disappointment on their face when they open their presents.

It might happen.

But we can help them cope with disappointment.

This is one of the things I teach inside of The Parent Survival Academy. (drop your name on the waitlist)

So here are our family birthday rituals- but I recommend you make your own.

We have a sign that we hang up with the letters ‘Happy Birthday’ and we add the child’s name 

Birthday breakfast -

I’ve heard that some families have cake for breakfast.

We don’t do that, but we have special things like pain au chocolat, fresh orange juice, Scrambled eggs and toasted bagels and some berries and yogurt.

They still sometimes like hot chocolate too.

Then they open their card – this is a big one.  I write A LOT inside  it. 

I write all the good things about that child’s positive character traits with some examples to illustrate it. 

I also write about all the things they’ve achieved during the past year and talk about the effort it required. 

In the evening, they get to pick their favourite meal and we have that as a family.

I usually make a cake for desert - the same chocolate cake recipe.

I'm not terribly creative with cake decoration so I cover the cake in chocolate icing and some sweets and write their name on it - see below

Email me [email protected] if you'd like the recipe

 

If children exhibit jealousy on their sibling's birthday, instead of criticism, try something like this:

'"I can see how hard it is when your sister gets so many presents and it's not your birthday so you aren't getting any.  It makes. you want to rip open the packages, even though they're not for you" 

Birthday parties are a whole other blog which I will write about sometime soon.

In the meantime, one piece of advice I’d give is to do a kids party that is within your means and your capacity and fits with what your child enjoys.  

 If you like these ideas, do forward to a friend.