I have a friend... we'll call her Gertrude. (She knows who she is). She's awesome. I've known her for a long time - and I truly enjoy spending time with her. (I also enjoy spending time with her husband and their son, who is extremely cute).
That said, a while back, they threw a 6-month old birthday party for their adorable son. We didn't think this was so adorable.
We also felt obligated to go. They're good friends of ours - and, (at the time), we lived close by... and well... we just felt obligated. I've since discovered that we were really only invited so we wouldn't be offended if we weren't. Ah... the silly social mores of parents and non-parents and the inevitable misperceptions... even among good friends. Anyway, to us, the 6-month birthday party seemed like the silliest most asinine thing we'd ever heard of a parent doing, (at least that was meant to be a positive thing and not some stupid new-parent screw-up anyway). Chances are we felt that way because we weren't, (and still aren't), parents. Puppy parents, yes. Child parents, no. I'm sure were we to become parents of an actual human child, we might do some really silly, sappy, kind-of insane stuff too, but I can assure you, that having had that experience, we will NOT and I repeat, NOT be throwing a 6-month birthday for any child of ours for any reason whatsoever. Look, I will openly admit that we have special voices we've created for our puppies - and we create entire conversations for them. We've turned them into human beings in some respects... yet still, we would never throw a 6-month birthday party... ever. At 6-months, the kid doesn't really know what's up anyway. He has no idea we were even there. Personally, I don't remember much of anything prior to the age of 3 at this point...
I'm curious about everyone else out there, particularly other parents. Is this something you would do (or HAVE done), for your children?
Come clean. You know you want to...
On another note - I am fairly convinced that the vast majority of non-parents can't stand going to the birthday parties of their friends' children.
We've been to enough now to know this is true for us - and we're fessing up.
As for Gertrude - if you're reading this, (and you said you would be), thanks for letting me indulge.
Photo Credit Due Here: http://thechicagoriveras.blogspot.com/2009/06/fathers-day6-month-appointment.html - Evidently, another family pulled this same nonsense. I'm sure it's rampant.
