Pinterest Is Ruining Our Lives – Birthday Party Edition

d5274d7298da5821cd83bb567e9c2564__1375549809_142.196.167.223In yet another installment of Pinterest Is Ruining Our Lives, I present you with the ever-increasing stress throwing a birthday party for our child is bringing us. It seems we all believe the amount of love we have for our child is directly related to the amount of time we spend making everything for their parties from scratch. And it better be Pinterest-worthy.

A new study in the Journal of Consumer Culture suggests that moms today are shifting from outsourcing elements of their children’s birthday parties to making everything from scratch.

As the marketplace increasingly provides goods and services to support mothers and parenting, the extent to which this is acceptable is a source of anxiety for the enactment of ”˜good’ mothering in some social groups.

Translation: if you go to Party City, buy some matching napkins, paper plates and cups, throw a bunch of crap in a favor bag, buy a Baskin Robbins Ice Cream Cake and call it a day – everyone is going to think you are a crap mom. Moms that own glue-guns rejoice. The rest of us cry into our glasses of wine.

The findings show that mothers could publicly demonstrate their intimate knowledge and care for their child by personalising the birthday party through the gift of their time and effort to create a ”˜homemade’ event. Although overt commercialisation was managed, do-it-yourself understates the need to consume the constituent elements of the celebration. Instead mothers’ abiding care was woven into the party to express something special for the child without material excess.

Huh? Have you seen some of the kids’ birthday party boards on Pinterest? I don’t have the time for that. More importantly, I don’t have the talent for that. If I tried to craft some homemade-everything birthday party for my child – it would be a multi-colored, sprinkle-laden horror-show.

c6ea94b71da280b0f7d5fcba68494f10__1375549307_142.196.167.223

(photo: Pinterest)

If any of you moms have the ability to pull off one of those homemade parties, good for you. Also, can I come? If you come to my house your kid will be leaving with a bag of dollar store crap and feasting on a Baskin Robbins ice cream cake.

(photo: karaspartyideas.com/ Pinterest)

Similar Posts