So we did, a few days after her actual birthday. Her birthday falls shortly after Chanukah and Santa's visit, so she was overloaded (in this mom's humble opinion) with presents--10 total days worth over three weeks seems excessive, right? I asked our guests (three neighbors) to withhold from bringing her gifts--much to their shock and disappointment. But they respected my approach (which I greatly appreciate).
We ate a lot of cake, and played duck-duck-goose for a good half hour in the front yard. Then, folks headed home. I asked our daughter later if she enjoyed her party. She said she did, but she was sad. I asked why, fearing that she was sad because she didn't get presents. She said, "I hated when they had to leave. Why can't they just stay and play all the time?" To be six and only want to play all the time...
The other day, the kids and I were in the car singing "Firework" by Katy Perry. Came home and played the video. It features a less than perfectly figured teenager, fearful of jumping into a swimming pool in her underwear with her friends. It features a cancer-stricken child in a hospital, feeling lonely and scared. It features a gay teen boy, nervously watching another boy at a party. With Katy Perry reminding them that they're each a firework, that they can show everybody what they're worth, that they've each got a light inside, they each overcome their fears--jumping into a pool, leaving that hospital, kissing that boy.
My daughter asked what it all meant and I said, "it all means you don't have to worry what others think or say, you just have to believe in yourself and remember that you're strong and bright." She accepted that as truth. To be six and just accept that as truth...
