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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

To think this entire article in the Daily Mail is made up?

76 replies

TheCrackFox · 01/07/2010 20:05

The premise of the whole article is that children nowadays are so spoilt that they are celebrating their birthday every six months. I refuse to believe that this has ever happened. And, no, the Queen doesn't count as a valid example.

bollocks

OP posts:
inchhighprivateeye · 01/07/2010 23:11

The writer is loving your thoughts on this

babywrangler · 02/07/2010 00:26

Honestly though, why read the DM if you hate it?
No one forces you, it's not a set text!
newspapers operate to incredibly tight financial constraints and are in no way subsidised.
Like it or not, the Mail is a successful and profitable title - largely because of this sort of pompous outrage.
Really, getting het up about a flimsy opinion piece on spoilt brat, half-year birthday parties? Is there nothing more pressing on your agenda?

melpomene · 02/07/2010 00:37

Nope, never encountered a half birthday party. Although we did celebrate dd2's 'pi' birthday when she was 3.141 years old, just for a laugh (We gave her a card and a bubble-blowing kit, and ate pie; no guests involved).

There are also sites like this where you can calculate when your dc will be 1000, 2000 or 3000 days old, if you fancy an extra excuse for a party .

borderslass · 02/07/2010 00:44

my youngest nephew has 'an official' birthday as he was born at new year like his grandma [smil] and she always felt that she missed out on her birthday I think its quite nice in those circumstances.my dad was born christmas day and very rarely got birthday presents as a child.

Lifegoeson · 02/07/2010 00:59

TA - Shouldn't it be the other way round?!

FM - Hell yeah!

BW - I think you'll find parents do not 'fancy' a summer knees up, I feel - as a mother with DS born 1st Feb, it's just not the same!! - Do you remember your 'long cold winnters' as a kid, nah-uh!

My DS had a rubbish 1st birthday as building had to close as heating shutting up shop, I will never forget it, ruined the day, people being shitty because 'their' day had been inconvenienced, hello! - 1st birthday party cancelled! I even rang in the morning to check and let people know hours in advance, I know HE won't even remember it, but it still stings... Actually, thinking about it, this IS his half birthday! - Roll on improptu barby, balloons and bubble machine this weekend!

everydayinMK · 02/07/2010 01:18

Finding this thread today has been quite spooky for me.

My DS1 asked us over a year ago how old he himself would be when his younger brother (DS2)turned two.

We replied to DS1 that he'd be exactly 5.5yrs (to the day) on his younger brother's second birthday and we thought nothing more about it.

Now there are only a few weeks left in the run up to DS2's second birthday, and DS1 has told all his friends at school that he is throwing a big splashdown party at the new water park!

He's invited every Tom, Dick and Harry he's crossed paths with to 'HIS PARTY' in the past few days. He's bigged it up so much that some mums have even pencilled it in their diaries!

I've had to dash many hopes with the truth . I just couldn't understand why he was doing it.

But now I know.
He's just so preoperationally egocentric on-trend!
He's been channeling the latest Daily Wail cult of the half-birthday before I'd even heard about it...

Clary · 02/07/2010 01:30

Yes I agree, totally made up.

It's a think piece after all, not an actual factual report, so it's allowed to be made up anyway.

I always used to make up any I wrote.

Lots of stories in newspapers are made up by bord and desperate news editors. I can spot em a mile off on account of doing it myself formerly being in the trade

Lovecat · 02/07/2010 02:51

Oh God, DD would LOVE this, she's currently whinging about how she has to wait another 6 months for it to be her birthday and it's SOOO unfair (she's only 5 yet appears to be channelling Kevin the Teenager).

Thankfully I have a summer birthday and we tend to have an outdoor bbq party for that, a lot of my friends have kids so it's kind of like a mini party for her (without presents, party bags or entertainment other than what they make for themselves - she has a great time!).

Would never deliberately throw a half-birthday party though. Smacks of greed, wanting 2 lots of prezzies!

marenmj · 02/07/2010 03:58

DD gets half-birthday parties (Christmas baby) at the insistence of DH, who was also a Christmas baby. Every year his siblings got a birthday present on their birthday and a party, and he got a "combined birthday and Christmas" present, and none of his friends could ever come to his birthday party as it fell over the school hols and they were all away.

He hated it. He despised his birthday. He doesn't want his daughter to feel the same. We do a special family dinner with a cupcake on her birthday, and a "half-birthday" party in June with friends/family/presents.

When she's old enough to have a preference (beyond MORE BIRTHDAYS), she can choose which she likes better.

It's not made up, just wildly mis-represented.

AmericanHag · 02/07/2010 04:09

It must be made up. If a trend this narcissistic and greedy was going around, certainly we'd have heard of it here in the U.S., right?

Actually, my niece got my mom to make a fuss over her half-birthdays (niece is now 34). I'd never heard of it before or since. Niece was rather insufferably spoiled, though. And her birthday is in May, so no excuse.

Jamieandhismagictorch · 02/07/2010 06:07

The DM doesn't have a good grasp of Statistical Significance , so "two people who the journalist knows" (possibly), would constitute "a trend" to them.

I have never heard of this.

Jamieandhismagictorch · 02/07/2010 06:08

babywrangler - have you never read AIBU before? - getting outraged about trivial matters is its raison d'etre. I suggest you stop reading AIBU if you don't like it ...

Triggles · 02/07/2010 06:09

I can see letting a child celebrate for a December/January birthday in the summer, as otherwise it's rather overshadowed by the Christmas/New Year holidays. But we have one in October, and 3 in July. So no need for a half-birthday celebration. Odd.

Triggles · 02/07/2010 06:12

Just a further that maybe it's not made up, maybe the writer simply has some unbelievably odd friends that have more money than sense.

I'm a little baffled that because she sees it in a few acquaintances of hers that she considers it the norm.

piscesmoon · 02/07/2010 06:18

I just avoid reading the Daily Mail.

whoneedssleepanyway · 02/07/2010 06:29

this is why i don't read the DM. ridiculous.

Bonsoir · 02/07/2010 07:04

I've never been invited to a half-birthday party.

What I do see, though, is that the children in my DD's class who had their birthdays at the beginning of the school year got a much better turnout for their parties than did the children whose birthdays fell at the end of the school year. The children had so many parties (including birthday parties at school) that they had party-fatigue by the end of the year and no longer wanted to go.

CwtchyBlueMama · 02/07/2010 08:13

Seen it happen quite a lot,especially the children whose bdays fall in Nov-March,ds was invited to 2 parties in the same yr for 2 little girls in his class.

I only sent him to one cos otherwise it works out too expensive to be buying 2 lots of presents for the winter babies.

Galena · 02/07/2010 08:20

I'm still considering having another celebration for my DD later this month - Her birthday is in April, but she was actually due mid-July. We were thinking of having an 'official' birthday celebration as well as an actual one. It may well end up being just a small celebration with the 3 of us.

emptyshell · 02/07/2010 08:29

I've known a few parents who've had their kids birthday parties in a different month to their actual birthday - usually it's those in August who want a party date when people aren't on holiday and they're back at school to get invites given out easily.

My birthday's about as slap bang in the middle of the year as it's possible to get so Christmas is my half-birthday if such a thing exists.

BigWeeHag · 02/07/2010 08:59

I was thinking about this for DS2, his birthday is New Year's Day, and for his first this year people either didn't bother showing, or were hungover/ still pissed and not really up for kids! SO if that is the way of the future, I thought I might celebrate it on the anniversary of his Naming Day instead. Just a thought though.

sprogger · 02/07/2010 09:13

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

gigglet · 02/07/2010 09:15

I think the article is exaggerated. The writer probably knows one kid whose parents are ridiculous - theres always one, after all...

My birthday is next to Christmas. One year my grandparents gave me my present 6 months early. When it got to my birthday I had forgotten I got it then and was disappointed not to get a present from them. They went straight back to celebrating my birthday on the day.

AlCrowley · 02/07/2010 09:21

I was considering having a teddy bears picnic or something for DD as she was born on the 17th December so everyone was in full Christmas mode when I went in to have her and probably will be for future birthdays too.

Love the idea of a Pi birthday. Have missed DS's now as he is 3 years, 3 months already. How long is 0.141 of a year?

cory · 02/07/2010 09:23

We were so disorganised that we didn't get round to holding ds' party until several months after the event... But I hardly think that is a sign of over-pampering.