Each year, fifty million American moms plan some three hundred million birthday parties. That’s more than 820,000 parties a day. What if you could use these parties to build something bigger? You can. Whether you’re a CityMommy, a hockey mom, a soccer mom, a ballet mom, a violin mom, a theater mom, a stay-at-home mom, a working mom, an older mom, a younger mom, a single mom, a gay mom, or a mom-to-be, you have a power tool available that can change the world.
The everyday event: a power tool for making peace in the new millennium.
How, you say?
Believe it or not, the connections forged at the simplest of celebrations have the power to pave the way for something bigger. Think about it. If you can plan a birthday party that brings the soccer team and the kindergarten class together and shows them how to have fun and make friends, maybe you could use the same principles to plan, say, a wedding. If you can plan a wedding that brings two families together, with all the diplomacy, psychology, and social science that this kind of event takes, what else could you plan? The G8 Conference? A World Peace Summit meeting? You could plan one event after another, each one leveraging the power of past successes and leading to greater understanding of ourselves, our neighbors, and our communities.
If you can plan a birthday party, world peace is just a cupcake away.
Now, don’t go into overwhelm. This isn’t complicated. It’s philosophy—party philosophy: We believe that a party should be as much fun to plan as it is to attend. Having a positive party philosophy sets the intention for a successful celebration. Stressed out party planners lead to stressed out parties. Not fun to plan equals not fun to attend.
Most of us approach the planning of a party by tackling the details first. Infuse some fun into the planning stage and see what happens when party day finally arrives.
Get in a Party State of Mind with Our Party Prep Three Step:
1. Plan for fun with your kid- Do something with your kid to get the party juices
flowing before the event (This doesn’t mean dragging them shopping!).
Create a pre-party buzz by letting your four year old birthday child taste
test three flavors of ice cream at dinner about a week before the party and pick
the flavor to be served on the big day. Or have a trial run of the party
game with just the family.
2. Plan for fun with your family- Create a birthday party tradition like serving hot fudge pancakes for breakfast or eating desert first at dinner to celebrate each family members’ birthday.
3. Plan for fun with the guests-Have a welcome station: Set up a spot near the entrance of the party location for your birthday girl or boy to greet each guest at the door with a sparkle tattoo, action hero sticker, or party hat, and take presents as the guests arrive.
Serve kid-friendly food: Kids are not food critics and are not impressed with complex menus. Try serving a make-your-own party kabob with chopped hot dogs, cheese cubes, and pickles. You can even have a trial run of the menu for dinner a week before the party.
Choose an activity that fosters friendship: Think about who’s coming, what they like, and what they can do easily and successfully when you are choosing an activity. Avoid overly-competitive games where there is a definitive winner and many “losers.” Try a teddy bear parade for the pre-school set or a pizza-making party for the school-aged crowd.
Say thank you often and out loud: Prepare the birthday child to thank each guest for their present and more importantly, for their presence. Practice mini-scripts for situations like identical gifts (hint: It’s not OK to say, “Too bad I already have this!”).
Getting into a party state of mind is critical to the success of a party—even a kids’ party. Experts recommend that you don’t grocery shop hungry—it leads to bad food choices and excess spending; we recommend that you don’t plan parties stressed—which creates the same results. This change in thinking takes a little practice, but that’s what the everyday events are for. Most people can’t play the piano just by hearing it played; it requires learning a new skill and daily practice. It’s the same with thinking in a party state of mind; if you practice it on the little occasions you will get a standing ovation for the once-in-a-lifetime events.
In this age of cell phones, emails, Blackberries, and instant messaging, we are more disconnected than ever. The solution to great connections isn’t another electronic device. Whether it’s a birthday party, a wedding, or a summit meeting, what we know is that all events share the same higher goal: To connect us to each other. So the next time you plan a birthday party, let world peace be your theme.
