How to Avoid the Kids Birthday Party Nightmare
Not exactly on the scale of global warming, but all us parents worry that our child’s birthday party won’t live up to their very high expectations. After all, they’ve been waiting months for this event, building it up in their mind all along. And the last party they went to was deemed ‘awesome’ by the kids. Nothing like a little pressure!
You work days, maybe weeks, buying stuff and putting party games together to keep the kids occupied and having fun. After a couple of your activities, one or two kids wander off to do something else, probably creating a mess. At best, you’ve now been put in the unfortunate position of having to play ‘bad cop’ to keep the festivities on track. At worst, none of this escapes the eye of your birthday child, who is now all worried that his or her party isn’t as good as it should be, and the anxiety ratchets right up. Now that the stress level has been raised, the least little thing becomes a crisis in the eyes of your birthday child. As the stress increases, the behavior heads south, and you’ve got the kids birthday party ‘Nightmare’ on your hands.
This scenario is always triggered by the parents’ need to step in and exert control. It’s their party, they don’t want you controlling things, and the minute you do they realize things aren’t going as perfectly as planned. And the spiral begins.
Having done numerous birthday parties for my own kids that morphed into the business of selling party games packages for kids on the Internet, I’ve found the antidote to this nightmare. It may be politically incorrect these days, but the answer is a little team competition built into your activities.
The operative words here are ‘a little’ and ‘team’. The team aspect is critical, as it takes the focus, and the pressure, off the birthday child and places it on a group instead. With two or more groups playing as teams, it’s no longer ‘my birthday party’ but a group effort. Competition gives the games a goal, winning, that focuses that group on the task at hand and vastly decreases the probability of non-participation and your need to step in and exert parental control. And there’s no need to highlight the competitive aspect with prizes for winners- the simple goal of winning is sufficient incentive for the kids. As a team effort, the less competitive kids can contribute as they choose in a non-threatening environment.
Keep each individual game short so those attention spans aren’t stretched to the breaking point. If the competition ends up lopsided with one team noticeable outperforming the other, just mix things up: “Everybody with white socks on this team for the next game!” They’ll never figure out it wasn’t part of your plan all along.
In short- everybody wins when you include a bit of team competition in your games. The kids get and stay better focused on your activities. With all involved, you can remain in your role as host rather than be the controlling parent. The birthday child can focus on the fun instead of what’s going wrong. No Birthday Party Nightmare; it will be a celebration that’s great fun for everyone, even you.
To see how a little team competition can be added to your next kids birthday party celebration, visit www.birthdaypartygameslady.com and check out the Survivor Party for ages 6-8, the Harry Potter Party for kids 8 to 11 or the Detective Party for 8-10 year olds. Each includes the competitive aspect discussed here to create engaging games that keep everybody tuned in and having a great time.
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