At the risk of sounding like a birthday Grinch, I’ll admit: I don’t enjoy hosting my kids’ birthday parties, especially large ones. Does that make me a terrible parent? As a mom, I do some things very well, but organizing elaborate social gatherings is not one of them. I admire those of you who are party-planning pros, since my skills and confidence in this area are minimal. The weeks leading up to the so-called “fun” event to celebrate my child’s glorious arrival into the world are filled with tension, overanalyzes, self-doubt, and a long list of tasks and errands intended to make everything “perfect.” When you pause to think about it, it’s a little ironic. My child’s actual birth was (to put it delicately) an arduous experience for me. But does enduring those many hours of labor give me a free pass on the same date in every year that…

My son wandered the store examining each item carefully. He held up a sweater and said “Maybe he will like this?” It came out more of a question than a statement. “Do you think he will like it?” I asked “You know more than me” He shook his head and kept looking. We were out shopping for a birthday gift to bring to the party he was invited to later in the day. You won’t ever find me shopping for birthday gifts by myself. It’s really important to me that my kids pick the birthday gifts that they bring to their friends party. They have become quite good at gift giving. They pay attention to what their friends enjoy and what they don’t enjoy. As we wander through the store I learn about their friends likes and dislikes; which one is into Minecraft, which one loves to read, which one…