I just got back from my Nephew-in-Law's birthday party. The parents (my BIL and SIL) had invited pretty much everyone they knew who was either related or had kids themselves. There were probably 10 kids there all together ranging from age 10 to under 1. And there was one girl who was about 7 who was going absolutely crazy running all over and fighting over balloons. And when present time came, there were a couple other boys who were literally ripping the presents away from the NIL and opening them without permission. It was insane.
And the WORST part was there were several grandmas who just HAD to take pictures of every single event. EVERY present that was opened, had probably 4 pictures taken and when cake time came, the icing plastered face of my NIL had pictures taken galore. It was your classic, "everyone loves children not matter what" crowd. It was sickening.
I wanted to call them all fat disgusting cows who had nothing better to do then pop out brats. (I guess that should go in the confession thread.)
I hate children.
Ugh. I hear that. I have a nephew-in-law and have to sit through his lil' birthday parties and listen to all the in-laws rant and rave about how cute he is. They go completely ape over every stupid little thing he says, and he's like 5 or 6 now. The whole talking thing should be old hat by now, but every little "yay" and what not practially gets a standing ovation.
Naturally, we have to waste money on a gift even though they never buy us gifts. I mean I guess its polite because they are offering food and hospitality in return, but I don't really partake because their cooking and/or choice of catering is always disgusting.
You guys must not be any good at making excuses! LOL
We went to a one year old's birthday party. There were a lot of people and it was chaotic. You aren't able to talk to adults. The advantage to the chaos is that we could slip out and no one noticed we were gone.
This is why I'm so glad my family isn't close. I'm thinking the reason they invited so many people for a three year old is the gift grab because I'm sure the kid won't remember it.
That's got to be it, Eddy. Since he won't remember, they can exchange everything for the adult stuff they really want.
I will never ever go an event like that.
Just say " No".
(12-21-2009 02:51 AM)cassia Wrote: [ -> ]I will never ever go an event like that.
Just say " No".
"No, thank you. I can't make it. Have a lovely time!"
You could even send a card, sans money. You can make "No fucking way!" sound really gracious.
Everyone knows me well enough to not bother asking. Even if I actually cared about the birthday kid, I still can't be around all the other little bastards.
We are not in the position to be in anything like that, the only neices and nephews we have are faaaar away, plus they are getting too old for stuff like this. The one is going to be 15 or 16 so those types of parties are out.
Yeah next time I would fake sick!
I never understood the concept of kiddy birthday parties or even adult ones. There's nothing special about turning one, or two or three or whatever age. Everyone gets a year older annually, so what's the big deal?. And like it was said earlier, the kid isn't going to remember a damn thing about it. These kiddy birthday parties are actually for the parents, not the kids. It's an excuse to show off their DNA trophies and it's a gift grab-as if there aren't enough gift grab occasions throughout the year.
I'm so sorry you had to deal with that, jmk3482. It was nice of you to attend. It sounds brutal.
Thank goodness my nieces and nephew are either too old or too far away to have to go through that anymore.
Dog Holliday has it right - the bday parties like this are for the parents to show-off, nothing more. No kid is going to remember his bday party if he's under 5.
Thanks everyone. If I had had a choice in the matter, then I wouldn't have gone.
A lot of you are saying that I should have said No, or made an excuse, but you have to realize that it's not that simple for me. My BIL lives literally next door. And DH's family is exactly that kind of family that demands closeness and involvement or you're labeled as an insincere bitch who doesn't care about anyone or anything. I love my DH very much and I do it for him. I go to things like that so he doesn't have to explain why I'm not there. We have a hard enough time dealing with DH's father, I don't need it from my BIL too.
Trust me, I don't have a choice.
As far as the party being more for the parents, I would probably agree with that.
I hear you - there are some things you just have to do when it comes to family. Too bad they live next door to you, though, that's tough all around for other reasons.
It's nice to support your DH in that way. There may come a time when he's doing things for you that he may not want to, especially if you have aging parents, for example.
In my defense I'd like to say its my husband who had to get better at making excuses. After his nephew's first couple of birthdays he realized how boring and pointless they were. It took a while, but I was finally able to get him to see that it really doesn't matter if we're there or not-all the breeders are so busy worshipping the DNA trophies that they don't notice if we're there or not. If we do go now, its only to ease his guilt and we're only there long enough to say hi and bye to everyone.
My deepest condolences
..................lol
My own (step) nieces and nephews don't even know who I am. We don't interact, like, at all. I bowed out a long time ago.
I do anticipate that if D's siblings have kids, D will want to support them and visit their families, and I am OK with that. I really like his family, so I'm sure I will have no problem being an auntie to their kids--IF they have any.
That said, I tend to bow out of these things as it stands right now.
Jen M.
(12-20-2009 07:23 PM)jmk3482 Wrote: [ -> ]I just got back from my Nephew-in-Law's birthday party. The parents (my BIL and SIL) had invited pretty much everyone they knew who was either related or had kids themselves. There were probably 10 kids there all together ranging from age 10 to under 1. And there was one girl who was about 7 who was going absolutely crazy running all over and fighting over balloons. And when present time came, there were a couple other boys who were literally ripping the presents away from the NIL and opening them without permission. It was insane.
And the WORST part was there were several grandmas who just HAD to take pictures of every single event. EVERY present that was opened, had probably 4 pictures taken and when cake time came, the icing plastered face of my NIL had pictures taken galore. It was your classic, "everyone loves children not matter what" crowd. It was sickening.
I wanted to call them all fat disgusting cows who had nothing better to do then pop out brats. (I guess that should go in the confession thread.)
I hate children.
JMK I am so sorry you had to deal with that mess. But I had to laugh at your mini confession of hating children. Please know in your heart that you are NOT alone!
Also, be grateful you only have one NIL
I had to endure all that crap when my 10 neices and nephews combined were all around 5 years old and up! And every year a birthday party similiar to yours went on. ( shudders at the memories)
Now, most of them have kids of their own, and are loving it all
( sigh) I will never understand that crap!
Anyway, try to Hang in there and have a Merry Christmas
