to think this is both wasteful and a bit mean!

[lackingNameChangeInspiration]

www.kissthefrogx.com/cake-smash-the-competition/

wasteful.. obviously

mean.. because while they may enjoy it at the time, a 1 year old being allowed to stuff its face with sugar for an hour is going to feel ROUGH afterwards!

Cultural judginess. For first birthday, it's traditional in the US to give the 1yo their own cake to dive into & eat & mash up. And take a lot of photos to share. Just a bit of fun.

I prefer to teach my kids to share birthday cake

How long as this tradition been around for lljkk?

First I've heard of this, imho it's a crap idea, but then I'm not a fan of these studio set up ideas! They get really on my nerves esp f cheesey family potraits.

runs of dodging the cake throwers

I dont like to see people messing around with food so I wouldn't like this, I certainly wouldn't think the pictures nice or cute.

I've seen where some brides and grooms push cake into each others faces and that turns my stomach

I was obviously a trendsetter. My parents have a picture of me on my first birthday, taken 35 years ago, shoving a palmful of cake towards my fat little face.

Sounds a good idea, all the fun none of the cleaning up :)

I wasn't aware it was a tradition anywhere, I don't automatically dislike "american imports" BTW its not that (bring on the babyshowers and the trick or treating!) so its not that, i didn't know it was "from" there I'm not one of the American tradition bashers on here!

It's utterly stupid, wasteful, naff and my DS would have eaten loads of cake, thereby making himself quite ill.

The reason why this bugs me is I spend every meal telling my ds not to play with his food, rub it onto the table, his face, me, etc etc. then I let him rip with a whole cake. I just know that if we did this, the very next cake he saw he would throw himself at with reckless abandon.

Also the photos from the second link aren't that realistic. They must have taken the cake away and place a splodge of cake on their face. Because DS has more food on him at the end of a normal meal than that.

WELL! there would have been enough cake for all of us on this here thread if those babies hadn't shoved the whole thing in their ears, nappy and gob without sharing!!!!
[hands on hips emotion]

Do you think they'd let me do it? I wouldn't let DD but I'd like it...

I think there was an episode of secret diary of a call girl about adults who liked sitting in giant cakes!

What a bloody ridiculous thing!!

'For first birthday, it's traditional in the US to give the 1yo their own cake to dive into & eat & mash up. And take a lot of photos to share. Just a bit of fun.'

It is? That's funny, I lived there for 31 years and all my large, extended family are still there, plus a great many friends. NONE of them has ever done this or done this for their child. Because it's, well, kind of trashy and just . . . eww.

It doesn't offend me morally if other people want to do with their babies but one of my pet hates is food on people's faces, can't stand it! It would not be a memorable experience for me with DS's cute little face smeared in food!

Maybe I'll just change my name to Trashy then.

I'm another American expat with a photo of herself smashing cake into her face for her first birthday. It never struck me as odd! Granted, in most of the families I know it's a piece of their first birthday cake that's given to them. Some will be fairly adept at feeding themselves at 1 year old, and others will just have fun with the sensory aspect of it. I did the same with my girls and they had their first taste of cake on their first birthday. (They were fairly low sugar banana cakes, though, so no sugar comedown)

But even in the UK I've seen loads of food-based sensory play. Tubs of pasta or Jelly or custard, water tables full of porridge or rice or flour were regular features at the girl's preschool. It's great when children learn to eat nicely, but every now and again it's also a huge amount of fun to just let them loose to enjoy the feel of it.

Damn. I'm going to have to skype my mother and tell her we've been trashy for at least four generations... I do believe she may suffer an attack of the vapours...

A slice, sure, but a whole cake for them to smash up? Gross.