Saturday, January 17, 2009

The Death of Birthdays, Really? Is This Necessary?

So, we went to a birthday party for JuniorBean at McDonald's the other day. El 3atal (who came with us as a way to spend some time with JuniorBean one-on-one and ended up bucking the no-Dads-at-parties trend) started talking to one of the employees about whether they get lots of birthday parties. The employee answered, well not now given the situation (Gaza). This one was booked before the situation developed, so we didn't cancel but we aren't booking any additional ones. Okay, now I'm not getting into the whole boycott or don't boycott issue. Maybe I will on another post. For us, JuniorBean had his first ever McDonald's meal. El 3atal and I have been to McDonald's maybe 3 times in the 3 years we've lived here. It's just not high on our list of places to eat.

But, the location is fairly immaterial. What amazes me is the idea that a child shouldn't be able to have their birthday party where they want. Is this common? Are families here forgoing birthday parties for their young kids because of the Gaza situation? Any thoughts?

Happy Dirge!

2 Comments:

At 5:17 AM , Blogger abu 'n um tulip said...

We took Oliver to the golden arches last week after the doctor removed his bandage from his hernia surgery. A reward for him, obviously. There was hardly anybody in the place which was sort of eerie. As our kids are so young we haven't shared info about the conflict with them. However, I did see a fascinating 'music video' on Spacetoon last week. I found it too graphic for my children, but at the same time wonder if this dose of reality is good for children or not. It involved children singing with shots of soldiers, distraught families, and ransacked homes. At what age, and to what degree, do we explain injustice and how to react?

 
At 5:56 AM , Blogger MommaBean said...

Ahhh, a question I had intended to ask of others as well. Maybe that will be today's post. How much and when do we tell our kids.

 

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