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Sunday, March 30, 2008

Birthday party angst

I took N to one of her little friend's birthday parties on Saturday. It was at one of those places that have inflatables and a party room. The party was nice except for the 4-year-old who kept whining, crying and pouting beside me for a good chunk of time.

For some reason, N has a hard time with this particular inflatable party place. I don't know if it is because it is a little dark (dark blue and purple paint on the walls) or because the slide inflatable has a cover over it that keeps it dark and it scares her? There is another local indoor inflatable playground with a similar slide and she totally doesn't get wigged out so I'm guessing this could be part of her issue.

The other issue is that N just doesn't like crowds, and there were quite a few kids at this party. She kept saying to me, "But I want a friend to play with me." As in I want to have 1 little girl who will stay by my side for the entire time. It was so sad and pathetic. I wanted to hug her and at the same time drag her outta there and say, "If you are so miserable we are just gonna leave because your whining is really bugging me!"

All the other kids were running around, jumping, laughing, and N did too for brief spells. But for a good 35 minutes, she and I (and G in the Snugglie) sat on a mat and breathed together.

It is hard being 4, and it is hard being nearly 35 and having to remember than a 4-year-old may be miserable at a birthday party but still (even though it defies all logic) wants to stay at the birthday party.

Once we got into the party room, she was fine. She ate pizza and licked the icing off 2 cupcakes and then happily watched her friend open her presents.

As aggravating as this was for me, I'm thinking small birthday parties and a small wedding are in N's future.

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