Birthday Party Games Lady Blog

I have always advocated that parents’ and their birthday child consider turning the birthday party present tradition into charitable gifts for those in need. To help with charitable birthday gift ideas for kids, I even created my Good Gift Pool to make it easy.

But the very idea of asking your excited birthday child to give up all or even some of their presents is a tough one. No matter how much you’d like to avoid the glassy eyed stare as they contemplate their pile of gifts, or the wrap-rip that follows as the attack the present pile, it’s a tough thing to take away on their special day. But perhaps not…

On your invitation, ask your party guests to bring any unwrapped, used but outgrown or now under-used sporting equipment to your birthday party. Or make the theme old dolls, stuffed animals, books, games – whatever your child loves and is passionate about. Make two ‘piles’ – one your child’s gifts and the other these gifts for less fortunate children.

After your child’s gifts have been opened, announce that you’ll be donating all the items the kids brought to wherever you’ve chosen to make the donation. Your local Boys and Girls Club, homeless shelter, head start program – whatever you’ve got in your community.

Here’s the key to success. Make the actual donation of these items with your child, shortly after your party. His or her involvement will plant the seed. Talk about the giving and how it makes them feel.

You’ll not only have done a small thing for less fortunate kids, you’ll have started your child not just thinking about but personally taking action to help those in need. Not just hearing about it, but experiencing it, and learning that giving doesn’t have to mean giving up – a very hard thing for children to contemplate.

Do this once, maybe twice, and I’d bet the following year your child will be very willing to give up that pile of  party presents, most of which they play with once and then put on a shelf, and do a more meaningful charitable donation instead.

Charitable gifts are birthday gift ideas for kids that actually have an impact- instead of becoming dust collectors in their room.  And you’ll have truly begun to teach  them the joy of giving.

I’d been meaning to post this since the Holidays, but life got in the way. But when I saw the Quaker Oats company generous offer to donate bowls of oatmeal to the hungy in conjunction with a blog contest about how to help others, sponsored by www.startwithsubstance.com and blog.parentbloggers.com, I knew I had to get in gear and get it done. So, this post was written for Parent Bloggers Network as part of a sweepstakes sponsored by The Quaker Oats Company.

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I read with delight the Silicon Valley Moms blog about abandoning my least favorite birthday party custom- the Goodie Bag. I could go on for days about how our society does more to turn our kids into consumers rather than happy people and teaches them that ‘things’ mean happiness- but that’s not exactly on topic.

Birthday Party Games Lady party packages were very consciously created to redefine the ‘fun’ of a birthday party. I created my first one for my eldest daughter in response to her desire for a mystery party like several she’d been too- that cost almost $1000 hosted by a party person. No way was I going to shell out that kind of money. So I wrote it myself. After seeing how much enjoyment the kids had playing the game, interacting with each other and using their imaginations and creativity, I quickly realized that destination parties and other more ostentatious forms of birthday party ‘fun’ were just not necessary.

We parents can’t easily control the desire for ‘things’ that our kids get from school and the society they live in. But we can control what goes on in our own home. And as the parent of an elementary school child or a young teen, we do have control over the annual rite of the birthday party.

It’s always a trade-off between time and money, and today’s family with two working parents and very busy schedules often tips the scale toward money rather than time. But there are an infinite variety of activities that a small time investment can turn into good party fun without a big expenditure. Birthday Party Games Lady party packages aim to do just that.

A successful, fun birthday party is a great gift to your child. It shows your love, it allows your child to share their happiness with friends, and it makes your child feel really special. What do goodie bags contribute, except more expense. Forget ‘em!!

P.S. The same goes for expensive paper plates, napkins and the like- they barely even look at them!

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Birthday gifts for kids have been on my mind ever since I ran across the ECHOage website for ‘giftless gifts’ for kids birthday parties. The concept is great: pool the gift funds to buy a really nice, meaningful gifts for the birthday child from all the party guests AND to support an important cause and teach giving.

But for the Birthday Party Games Lady target of kids age 6 to 13, it seems unnecessarily green to deprive them of getting an invitation in the mail. They LOVE getting mail, because they don’t. Also- many kids on the younger end of the age range don’t have email addresses, and getting parents emails can be a pain if your school directory doesn’t include them. When all the bulk mailers stop sending out paper-wasting catalogs you didn’t ask for, then maybe it’s time to take green to this extreme.

And limiting the available charities to those that accept on-line donations, that are dedicated to children and are on the ECHOage list, seems….limiting. A child may better relate and therefore better understand the giving lesson with respect to something more local like the local animal shelter or the school library. A classmate may suffer from an ailment such as juvenile diabetes that all in attendance would feel good about contributing to. The possibilities are endless, not limited.

In these tough economic times, there are also plenty of people for whom a charitable donation isn’t a reasonable option. And in tough times, it’s just good sense to get the most out of the birthday party gift dollars by pooling them to buy something needed, truly useful or truly wanted. This isn’t an option with the ECHOage program, and I think it should be.

So- after many hours setting it up to run smoothly, Birthday Party Games Lady is pleased to announce a new service for pooling money for kids birthday party gifts: the Good Gift Pool Service. It’s available to anyone wanting to set up a gift pool for their birthday child where invitees parents can contribute by credit card, and the proceeds can be used as you see fit. It includes a downloadable printout to slip inside your mailed invitation telling people how to contribute, and if you wish to use some of the gift pool money for a charitable donation, to advise your invitees of your intentions. Your guests’ donations can even be made anonymous (you won’t know who gave what) to relieve any stress that might be felt by your invitees.

Instead of costing 15% to process your pool contributions and send you the money, it costs only 5%- the amount that the credit card processors charge for every transaction. In other words, it doesn’t make any money, it just covers the costs.

It’s easy, it allows you to teach a valuable lesson about giving if that’s appropriate for you, it gives you unlimited donation choices, and it allows you to make the most of the birthday gift dollars contributed to your pool. No more toys or games that your child doesn’t care about and end up being a waste of someone’s money. No more overload with 20 presents to open. And with a charitable donation, a little less “I” in birthday.

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Birthdays mark the progression through life, and for kids it’s a very rapid progression through the magical years of childhood. They change so fast and learn so much. I’m not really that much different this year than I was last year, but your 6 or 8 or 11 year old is VERY different this year. As parents, we need to stamp these years into our memory because you’ll never have the child you have today tomorrow- he or she will be quite different. The birthday and the birthday party mark all these transitions. And it’s the perfect opportunity to create lasting memories of a time that will be gone forever.

Enough philosophy, but an email I received from a customer got me thinking along these lines. Renee wrote to say:

“I wanted to let you know that we haven’t had the [Medieval Madness] party yet. It is scheduled for October27th and my daughter and her sister have had a blast planning it. My 12 year old is sewing her own medieval dress and her friends are as excited about the upcoming event as she is…one parent has already asked if they can come too. I don’t remember when we have had so much fun planning a birthday party.

Of course I will send an email after the party to let you know how it went but I know it will be fantastic.”

I’m delighted when I hear that parents have done the preparation for one of my party packages WITH their birthday child. Doing things together is another of the childhood joys that slips away as they get older. Getting things ready together makes it a family affair, not just MY birthday party. And it’s yet another memory of a time soon gone by.

All of the birthday party games packages from the Birthday Party Games Lady (except for the Detective Party as it would ruin the ‘mystery’) can involve the birthday child in the preparation, so go for it!! And your party will then really be a Celebration instead of another chore to get through.

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Gone, or about to go, are the lazy days of summer. Back into the school year schedule with all the activities and the ferrying to and fro. The anxiety about a new grade, new teachers, new friends to make, harder things to learn. It’s an exciting time, yet stressful, for our kids as well as the parents as everyone switches into a different gear from the summer. Adding a birthday party into the mix can feel like a daunting task.

And your child doesn’t need to add any stress about the birthday party to his or her new school year anxiety. Not a good thing.

Created to help parents who never seem to have enough time, right now is a great time to take advantage of the Birthday Party Games Lady ready-to-go party kits. For all my party packages, all you need to do is print, buy the few things listed in the package, follow the directions, and you’re all ready to go.

And all the party kits accomodate a good number of kids- anywhere from 11 up to as high as 30. So there’s room for all those new friends and classmates. Each Birthday Party Games Lady party theme is different from the usual and great fun for all the kids. Any of them will be a big success with you child and his or her friends, and start the school year off with a bang.

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