Thanks! I love giving gifts and it would be one of my "love languages". Maybe because we grew up poor and gifts were hard to come by with no holidays, but a good gift shows that a person is trying hard to think and feel you. I have a lot of fun with it. My wife and I didn't celebrate holidays for 16 years but she got plenty of surprise gifts. I've made grown men cry with the gifts I've gotten them. It's just a natural skill and I get something out of it too when my gift has an impact.
So Today Was My Wife's First Ever Birthday Party
by dubstepped 34 Replies latest jw experiences
-
-
Listener
Dubstepped, thanks for sharing your wife's birthday with us. It sounded fantastic.
Unlike most people's first birthday, she gets to remember it😃.
-
HB
Lovely to hear about your wife's party, Dubstepped. Thought you might enjoy hearing about another party I organised for an ex JW poster on this site who was helping me to get another friend of mine out of the cult back in 2008. (I have never been a JW).
I discovered he had never had (or been to) a birthday party which seemed all wrong to me. He was due to turn 38, so I arranged for him to come to visit our house on the day, encouraging him to believe it would just be a low key family meal. But instead I had arranged a surprise '8th' birthday party, with all the trimmings.
He was single so I had secretly arranged for several of my young single girl friends to turn up. When he'd recovered from the shock and we'd pinned on his oversized badge saying "8 today",
he quickly got into the party spirit, although he said afterwards it did feel very odd when he'd never been the centre of attention before, especially as he was the only man. (My husband went and hid in the spare room!)The birthday tea included classic children's party food such as chocolate spread sandwiches, cheese and pineapple on sticks, crisps, sausage rolls, pizza wedges, party rings, chocolate fingers, jelly and ice cream etc, washed down with lemonade and Pepsi.
Everyone wore party hats and we used party themed decorated paper plates with matching paper tablecloth and serviettes, and of course the birthday boy had to blow out his 8 candles on the cake while we sang the traditional song.
After tea, we played traditional party games, including pass the parcel, pin the tail on the donkey, blind man's buff etc. There was a compilation of 80s cheesy pop songs playing on the CD, and everyone gave a small fun present suitable for an 8 year old.
There was a great photo of my exJW friend on the sofa surrounded by pretty girls making a fuss of him!
Then of course at the end, everyone was given a little party bag to take home.
On a serious note, I think it is very sad that JW children miss out on birthdays when they are young. Although our adult children's party was lots of fun, it's impossible to make up later for all the missed, self-esteem building childhood experiences of feeling special for a day.
-
dubstepped
You're a good friend HB! I'll bet he never forgets that party. Heck, I'd like to go to that party myself as it sounded fun. My wife and I threw her party and we've never even been to a birthday party before, so we had no clue what traditions were or what was normal. We did some digging online but ultimately we did it our way. You hit the nail on the head about children not getting their own special day and their self-esteem. Heaven forbid you ever feel good or special as a kid without it being praise for giving a good presentation or talk at the freaking Kingdom Hall. Outside of that you knew you were pretty much worthless. Heck, even God's hope for you was nothing more than "undeserved kindness" for the sinful little kiddos. Ugh, makes me sick. So glad to be out, and happy that you were never a part of it but helped your friend like that.
-
Theburstbubble
Awww that sounds fab :) Thanks for sharing ❤️