It's My Party and I'll Cry if I Want To

Parties are meant to be joyous occasions -- and, from the looks of it, this one was no exception. From the looks of it . . . But, behind the scenes lurked disappointment and dismay . . . at least in the mind of the birthday boy. Poor Danny had to suffer a serious of unfortunate events surrounding his birthday party. First of all, on his actual birthday a girl in his class held her party - because the day of her birthday was during the past holiday weekend and no one was here to celebrate with her. The only day she could celebrate was Danny's birthday, so he had to go to someone else's party on his special day. Bummer! He cried and cried about the injustice of it! Then only about half his class could come to his party anyway ... most of the girls were booked up with various recitals or Scout activities. Five friends told us they couldn't make it, but five others just no-showed. As you can imagine, Danny was greatly disappointed and offended by this turn of events . . . another crying session was necessary!

The thing is I can understand just how he must have felt. I can remember being a child and being so hurt by those little injustices (that certainly don't seem so little to you at the time). The hard part is being the mommy trying to help your child through the storm. I know how sad he feels . . . but I also know that these less than perfect situations (euphemism for "problems") help children to grow and understand how things aren't always going to go their way in life.

But I sure wish I had a magic wand to make everything go just right for them!