If your kids share the same birthday month, or celebrate their birthdays a few weeks apart, it must have crossed your mind to just have a one time, big time celebration. Here are the pros and cons of having one party for your kiddies.
Pros and Cons of a Joint Party For Your Kids
You only need to prepare for one date. Planning your kids’ birthdays might get exhausting and take a lot of your time, and doing double that effort might wear you out. Planning for just one big party means you only need to prepare for one date, and you just need to prepare for (and maybe take a leave from work) for just that one day.
You can set the party during any day that you want. It’s only fair to choose a date that is not either of your children’s real birthdays, to make sure that it doesn’t show any favoritism on your part. If your kids are of school age, include them in deciding on what date they want to have their party.
You save on some expenses. The money you’ll spend on decorations, goodie bags, invitations, entertainers and food will just be good for one party! The expenses will be far less if your guest list for the two (or more) siblings are more or less the same people, like a lot of family you’re your friends. This is because you’ll only need to spend on the same people once, instead of two or three separate occasions.
You’ll teach a valuable lesson in sharing. Kids, no matter what age, sometimes have a hard time figuring out how and why they should share what they have, and letting them know the reasons behind a joint party (saving on expenses, effort, and time), will teach them a good lesson in sharing and planning.
You’ll have to put in the extra effort to be “fair”. That goes for everything, from making sure that the number of invited guests for each of your child is the same for all of them, to if the other one wants a cotton candy machine, the other one must have a booth all to his own, too. Even the price of their new clothes for the party has to be the same price!
You’ll spend double on some things. You’ll have to splurge on two different cakes, of course, and if your kids are of school age or has been going to a lot of play dates, you’ll have a whole different list of kids to include in your guest list—which means, you’ll need to pay for more food, more chairs and tables, more goodie bags, and a bigger venue.
Your kids will have different tastes. A joint celebration will only work if the ages of your children are close enough for them to like the same things. What a preschooler likes, from food to the decorations, will not be the same as a preteen or a teenager.
Your children will need a special celebration, all for themselves. Kids will always want to express their individuality, and it’s only fair that their actual birthday should be all about them. It can mean that you’ll have a small and intimate celebration with just family members present for each of your children, and have one big party for everyone else.
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