My daughter was invited to a birthday party recently and I have to say I was pretty amazed that the invitation specified the party would be between 4 and 5:30 p.m. My immediate reaction was: How much can you get done for a 6-year-old's birthday party in just one hour and a half? Then, when we got to the little girl's house at 4 p.m. on the dot, I noticed that all the other parents were just dropping off their children and though I felt really uncomfortable doing so, I ended up doing the same thing.
All this got me thinking about how different Latino kids' birthday parties are when compared to American kids' birthday parties.
For starters, we never put end times in our invitations, or at least I never have. I'll put at what time the birthday party is going to start–knowing full well that most of the other Latino families will probably show up an hour later–but I've never said at what time it'll be over because, how am I supposed to know that?
In the seven birthday parties I've hosted since I became a mom, none of them have ever ended before nighttime, even if they got started at noon. Granted, not everybody stays. Usually, it's just our closest friends and family, but most of my children's birthday parties have lasted well after they were already in bed.
Then there's the notion of who gets to stay at the party. Latinos tend to invite pretty much everybody, from the parents of the children invited to the party to every single family member imaginable (including abuelos, aunts and uncles, cousins, godparents, you name it) as well as the neighbors. American kids' birthday parties? Not so much, as evident from the birthday party my daughter was invited to recently.
The majority of my kids' birthday parties have also involved alcohol for the adults as well as full-blown meals for all. Not to mention the music. A party is not a party if there's no loud Latin music.
Finally, other than the piñata, I've never scheduled any kind of activities or games during any of my children's birthday parties. They've all been more of a free-for-all with kids pretty much being kids. Hmm… Maybe that's the reason these parties last so long…
What are some of the difference you've noticed between Latino kids' birthday parties and American kids' birthday parties?
