Better, But Not
First off, thanks for all the well wishes! You guys are the best! Second, it's great that you still love me even when I'm cranky. In fact, I think some of you enjoyed that cranky sarcastic post more than my normal fare. I told Hubby that I was going to have to be cranky more often so that I could supply better blog fodder. He is not excited.
Physically, I'm feeling quite a bit better. HURRAH! Mentally, I'm in overload. We've invited 11 kids to the house this weekend for Red's birthday party and I want it to be awesome. He hasn't had a party for several years... we started out saying that you can only do parties on the even numbered birthdays. So, he had one for his sixth birthday. Then nothing for the seventh and then we moved. So, his 8th birthday rolled around and he didn't know anyone here very well. I asked him to make a list of kids, but he just couldn't. There were a few, but really, he wasn't excited about inviting them. So, I told him we'd try again this year... and I may have gone a teeny bit overboard trying to make this an awesome party.
You see, Red still only has a few friends. No one he really gets a long with as well as we'd like. There's one kid that goes from being his best friend to being a tease and a bit of a bully in the blink of an eye. So, we've invited a bunch of kids from our church that he doesn't know very well because they all go to another school. A school that we are considering transferring him to next year to get away from the craziness of friends(??) at this place.
And so, in my crazy insanity, I'm trying to impress these other kids with a really cool party! I want them to have so much fun here that they will think that Red is just the coolest kid on the planet (which he is, by the way) and they'll want to be friends. Am I being unrealistic here? I probably am. But a mom can hope, right?
Would it be too much to follow the kids around and say "Will you be Red's friend? I'll give you a candy bar!" Yeah, that may be a bit much...
10 comments:
You never know, candy is huge motivator at 9 years old.
I say, go with it! Well, maybe not following the kids around and harrassing them to be Red's friends....
But I tend to go overboard even with just a party for our children that no one but we are going to attend. I'm all about birthday fun, especially for children.
Go for it! (Keep the campaigning to a minimum, though, IMO.) :-)
It's a great idea, so I hope it will be fun, anyway!! At least for Red - Happy Birthday, Red!
I would do the same thing. I hope he has a fantastic party and makes many new friends.
You want to give him every opportunity, for sure. But unless it's really bothering him, I wouldn't let the friend thing bother you. My niece went through most of her childhood without good friends. She just wanted to be home, and not invite anyone over. It about drove my sister crazy. But now she's an incredibly popular junior in hs.
Sometimes I look at the friends I kind of pushed my kids to hang out with and wish I hadn't.
Remember Stacy from the movie Freaky Friday? Yeah.
Like I said, we worry and we give them opportunities (as we should) but kids just all do things differently. Don't stress.
And I agree, the candy bars might be a bit much.
I hope it goes well. J wants a party for his birthday next week, but I don't know what to do for a bunch of 6 year olds when it's snowing and cold outside. I can't afford a party-type place either. I think, though, that he just wanted a lot of presents, and that's why he wanted to invite friends. So, when I told him that we couldn't do a friend party this year, but we would have a family party instead, all he wanted to know was if he would get at least 7 presents. I told him that I thought he would.
He has a lot of friends at school/church, but only one boy that he really plays with outside of school/church. This boy just lives down the street. No one else lives really close to us. I've felt bad that I haven't tried to fix up more play dates and things for him.
When my family moved when I was 7, my mom made me make cookies and deliver them to the girls in my primary class so we would be friends. To this day those girls still make fun of me. Did you notice I called them "those girls" instead of "friends". Ugh.
The party idea is muy awesome! I bet all of the kids will love it!
I have a long memory and I remember being that age. If he has a super cool birthday party? Other kids will totally make an extra effort to be his friend. No doubt. So I say go with your mommy instincts and spoil him!
I agree with everyone else--he'll be fine. If it doesn't really bother him, don't make a big deal out of it. Like justrandi said, all children are different.
The party will be great!!! Forget the candy bar idea. (My opinion)
the candy bar might be too much, but wanting your kid to have friends and be accepted is quite normal. hope the party goes well.
The party sounds great! As Lauren pointed out so well, you can't force friendships, but we moms love our kids and try our best to bring happy opportunities into their lives!
My youngest son needed a bit of help with friendships, and we have given him a birthday party AND a Halloween party every single year, and it really has made a difference! (His parties are not elaborate or expensive, but the kids love them.)
Post a Comment