Mom guilt is real. And to be honest, it totally sucks. Just recently i experienced my latest round of total mom guilt, and what surely won’t be my last, when Hudson’s third birthday started looming on my calendar. Living in a world of overboard Pinterest planned parties and the normalcy of mindless instagram scrolling on the daily passing by impeccably decorated kids’ soirees has conditioned us moms to think this is not only typical, but expected of us.
Now don’t get me wrong. Two years ago I had my own Pinterest board planning out Hudson’s “Where the Wild Things Are” themed first birthday party, complete with a cake smash photo shoot to go along with it, so I am prone to falling for this trap, and admittedly I kind of enjoy seeing it all come together. Last year was a little bit more low key, with a “Hudson’s Happy Hour” bbq, but with buddies all under the age of two who hadn’t developed past the stage of parallel play yet, the whole thing was decidedly more for the adults than the kids.
So this year, at eight months pregnant when I started to think about his birthday party the less and less excited I was, and certainly didn’t have the energy or motivation to devout to a themed out over the top bash. Instead I decided to look into a few kid’s gyms in the area, but a 300+ price tag for a party I knew he’d never remember seemed silly too, especially after JUST redecorating both Hudson’s room and the nursery. Add on top of that the fact that while Hudson can tell you the names of the kids in his twos preschool class, but doesn’t actually have play dates with any of them yet, and most of our family and friends would be out of town on vacations, and I just couldn’t do it this year.
Still that sense of mom guilt lagged. Was I bad mom? Was I just lazy? Would not having a real third birthday party completely throw off Hudson’s entire childhood and send him on a path of future self-destruction all because I couldn’t be bothered? Ridiculous, I know. But still, it was there.
So instead, I asked Hudson what he wanted to do for his birthday and his answer was simple: He wanted a Batman cake and a new toy. Not THAT I could handle. The most I sprung for was said amazing Batman cake by the insanely talented Rhiannn of Sweet Rhi, a gold three balloon which he barely let go of the entire day, and a few new toys. My in-laws and sister and her boyfriend came over and we hung out and ordered Pizza Hut. Hudson had a great time opening a few presents and oddly enough took a super long post-party snooze when the sugar high of the cake wore off. And like any good party, he ended the day in his underwear. Running around like he was Captain America. And it was perfection.
So screw you, mom guilt. And you too Pinterest. And while we’re at it, you too perfectly curated Instagram. Ain’t nobody got time for you. Well… until next year, cause y’all know I’ll be right back at it for his little brother’s first birthday. Old habits die hard 😉
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