Or just to join in and be enthusiastic about a birthday party in general?
DD1 had her party yesterday, we invited some friends over, and after waiting to see if there were any late arrivals, we started with pass the parcel. This was greeted with a distinct lack of enthusiasm, particularly by two girls who could barely be bothered to get off the sofa. One of them won, and seemed totally unimpressed by the prize (a High School Musical activity book which DD1 chose and said was brilliant) we then played musical statues, again, these two girls had to be told to get up and join in, then we had food, which went ok, and then, the "main event" Karaoke.
The party invitations said it was a Hannah Montana Karaoke party, so it was clear that we were doing this, and guess what, the two "teenage" 7 year olds sat on the sofa and refused to join in. They just sat on the sofa, watching the other girls and looking bored and sullen.
When it turned into just DD1 and one other girl doing all the singing we abandoned the karaoke and asked the two non-joiners what they wanted to do. They said they wanted to play a board game we have, so we got the game out, and played it, half way through they were clearly board of this too, so we wrapped this up and I got decisive, and announced that the karaoke was going back on, every one was going to have a turn, in pairs, and there would be prizes for the highest scores and most entertaining performances etc.
Everyone gathered around and had a turn singing a duet, on a "winner stays on" system, and I managed to hand out some of the prizes I had stashed, but Jeeeeeeeeezus, it was hard bloody hard work!
There were several other adults here, DD1 had invited a couple of "my" friends that she particularly likes, and we all joined forces to get every one up and going, and after the party "guest" children had gone one of my friends turned to me and said how rude the two girls had been. Now, I had been busily convincing myself that I was over-reacting by being so annoyed with them, but they brought every one down, by sitting looking pissed off and watching they made everyone else feel self conscious and unwilling to get involved. Most of all I was disappointed for DD1, she'd been so looking forward to her birthday and having her friends over, and then it all almost died on it's feet. We only just managed to get it going in the last hour after several false starts.
One of the sullen girls had a "make over" party earlier this year, and the other has all her own make up and stuff, and I got the feeling they felt that the party was beneath them, but I refuse to have a teenage party for 7 year olds.
Next year we are going to take a few kids to the pictures and then have "best friend" sleep over. I'm not busting a gut like that just to have it scorned by a pair of mini-divas.
I'm pissed off, can you tell?