[twitter]Your kids will get invited to about half a dozen birthday parties a year. Maybe more.
Classmates, teammates, cousins, what have you. Some you’ll know well, some you’ll just know because you recognize the name from the class list.
It’s those parties that can be troublesome. You don’t really “know” the birthday child, they’re just the “best friend of the week” of your son or daughter. But birthday parties are a big deal to your kids, and so you go.
But what do you get the birthday child? Something generic, probably. It’s something for the sake of giving something.
We need to stop it. Here’s how:
Hold a 50/50 birthday party. Ask people to bring some money to the party. Your child will split half for themselves to buy ONE toy, the other half will go to charity. 50 / 50.
It’s genius.
Can we please all agree to do this forever?
Kids don’t need 14 presents from 14 kids at their birthday. Parents don’t need to scramble around buying something for a kid they don’t know. This 50/50 birthday party idea solves everything at once. It tames the birthday party present buying nightmare for parents, and tones down the entitled generation we’re likely raising.
Zacharie had a 50/50 Birthday Party last month. He really wanted an expensive LEGO Jurassic World set, and he loves the Alberta Birds of Prey Rescue Centre that we go to visit in Coaldale.
When the guests arrived, they each had envelopes instead of bags or boxes (hey, we’re saving on wrapping paper too!). When we got home after our fun birthday party day, we discovered some friends gave $10, others gave $20 and, in the end, Zacharie had collected $120.
$60 to buy himself the LEGO Jurassic World set that far surpassed any of the random gifts his friends would have tossed his way, and $60 to drop in the big eagle at the Birds of Prey Centre.
Win. Win. Win.
This is an edit of an article written for Babble