My youngest brother just got done with 6th grade, his ceremony was this past Monday, they had 2 large cakes for the kids & parents & an award ceremony, which I thought was wrong, it was the same 9 kids who got all the awards. 40 some other kids had to sit there......I was BORED out of my mind!!!!
Not to be confrontational, but this is kind of what the whole thread is about. The same 9 kids got all the awards. Do you think they should have shared them out so that everyone got one? What about those kids who DID achieve more, DID work extra hard, run extra fast, whatever.
I'm sure the teachers thought long and hard and gave awards based on all those things, and as a parent of not-spectacularly-high-achieving kids, I'd RATHER they gave them to the kids who really deserved them, because then the awards actually have meaning, instead of being an everyone's a winner cop-out.
Totally OT - can anyone tell me how to put multiple quotes into one reply? Thx.
Oh I couldn't agree with you more tubbs!
If parents are at an awards ceremony where the same 9 or 10 students are "getting all the awards", perhaps that's a good time to have a little talk with "Jonny" of "Jane" about setting some goals for themselves.
I absolutely HATED all the sports banquets that we sat through for my kids when even the team that placed 12th all received "12th place" trophies.
Whatever happened to just giving a trophy to the winner? No wait, somebody's FEEEEEEEEELINGS may get hurt. (indy's word) 
Totally OT - can anyone tell me how to put multiple quotes into one reply? Thx.
There might be a shorter way, but I open a Word document, then cut-n-paste the quote-screen onto the word document. Then add my comments ..... then cut-n-paste the whole thing into a response.
Really? That sounds a little convuluted (sp?) OK, thanks!
For all us old farts...
I watched this, too funny
but I am an old fart in a (relatively) young person's body
Shoot, it may help to throw a "Potty Training Party". I was so desperate for my twins to be out of pampers, I would've done anything. Just when I go out and buy a case of diapers, they decide they don't want them anymore!
I read a book with my first child, how to potty train in one day yeah right! It involved a party , force feeding your kid juice all day, not letting them leave the room, and celebrating every time they went
My youngest brother just got done with 6th grade, his ceremony was this past Monday, they had 2 large cakes for the kids & parents & an award ceremony, which I thought was wrong, it was the same 9 kids who got all the awards. 40 some other kids had to sit there......I was BORED out of my mind!!!!
Not to be confrontational, but this is kind of what the whole thread is about. The same 9 kids got all the awards. Do you think they should have shared them out so that everyone got one? What about those kids who DID achieve more, DID work extra hard, run extra fast, whatever.
I'm sure the teachers thought long and hard and gave awards based on all those things, and as a parent of not-spectacularly-high-achieving kids, I'd RATHER they gave them to the kids who really deserved them, because then the awards actually have meaning, instead of being an everyone's a winner cop-out..
Oh I couldn't agree with you more tubbs!
If parents are at an awards ceremony where the same 9 or 10 students are "getting all the awards", perhaps that's a good time to have a little talk with "Jonny" of "Jane" about setting some goals for themselves.
I absolutely HATED all the sports banquets that we sat through for my kids when even the team that placed 12th all received "12th place" trophies.
Whatever happened to just giving a trophy to the winner? No wait, somebody's FEEEEEEEEELINGS may get hurt. (indy's word)
When DS was 4 and played tee ball, I was glad he got a participation trophy like everybody else, but now as he was awarded for his Kindergarten work, I was glad that not all the kids got recognition, same with my 2nd grade DD even at that age, they should be working hard and earning those
Many christenings, communions, confirmations, bar and bat mitzvahs are like mini-weddings. Over the top. My kids--at thirteen--went to bar mitzvahs at the Rainbow Room in NYC, and many other exclusive venues. I saw a child arrive at her First Communion ceremony in a limo.
.
Wait....let me understand this. A child celebrating her entry as a memeber into a christian church, a church that tells us to NOT put our faith in money, to give to the poor, to not worry about riches, arrived in a limo? LOL, does ANYONE else see the irony in this?
Not so much. I mean a limo drive means you're a crappy non-religious person? A limo ride means you put your faith in money? Really?
No, but ridding a limo to your first communion is RIDICULOUS. There is no point to this service except to commit yourself to your church. It ostentatious to take a limo to such an event. And how old are you at first communion? 6? 7? Taking a limo to an event is not non-religous. Taking a child to a dedicate themselves to a church in a limo is an oxymoron.
I agree KawaiiCakeCook. Taking communion is about confessing sin, being nourished spiritually by God, and joining into a church community. It is an occasion that is all about the believer's relationship with God, and with a community of believers, not a 'look at me as I get out of my limo' event.
I remember when my DD was preparing to take her First Holy Communion the Pastor held a meeting with all of us parents. At the meeting he went over a few last minute things and then at the end he said........................
"I'm a little embarrassed to have to say this, but I'll say it anyway. Please refrain from renting limousines to drive your son/daughter to church on Sunday". 
This was 14 yrs ago................all of us were shocked that someone would actually consider renting a limo. But the Pastor told us that the year before they had 3 girls show up in long white stretch limousines........one of them had hired a professional photographer who was walking around the church during the ceremony so that he could get the best shot of the little girl. It totally disrupted the ceremony.
I definitely see a problem with that as did the Priest..........and I'm pretty sure that Jesus Christ did NOT ride in a limousine to the Last Supper. 
9th grade graduation, nothing....what kind of graduation/wedding are these kids who have huge FIRST BIRTHDAY bashes? haha. I have been surprised at the amount of parents who will spend hundreds of dollars on cake, catering/restaurant, etc for a baby who doesn't even know what's going on. LOL.
I just have to shake my head and be happy there are people like that paying me for cake. haha.
I'm 34 so somewhat "Gen X" but at the same time my parents were no nonsense and still the generation that you were careful with money and saved up and all that. I'm not as good as they were but still we try to keep things pretty simple for our kids too.
As far as the wedding...I've never understood spending thousands upon thousands to feed other people. haha. Throw a little private party and then spend the thousands upon thousands and go to Europe for a month on your honeymoon!!!!!!
First Holy Communion's are usually ostentatious--the participants have the opportunity to dress to the nines-it's part of the process. All the chicklettes are dressed like teensy little brides with veils & special prayer books, lotsa falderal. Brides and limos ain't that far off.
Maybe Uncle Julius drives a limo & he wanted to drop off his little Munchkin neice--who knows--I don't see it as anyone gonna be held indefinitely in purgatory because she was transported thusly--she's not taking a vow of poverty or anything like that.
Is it a little over the top probably--but it's not ironic or sinful. It's taking a sacrament for the first time and families celebrate on this ocassion.
Hey, so the limo ride is the first sin she can repent of--what???
I'm sure the Pastor wasn't implying that it's *sinful* to hire the limousine, just unnecessary.
He was simply trying to avoid a multiplying effect of limousines from one year to the next.............ya know 20 stretch limousines lined up on the street in front of the church? (city church very little parking). 20 professional photographers fighting over the best spot in the church to get that great photo.
What's meant to be a very Holy Sacrament......being invited to the Lord's table for the first time to share bread and wine the symbol of His body and blood............I don't know...........I still think a limousine is WAY over the top.
Besides.........if they spend all that money renting a limo then they'll expect a "deal" on the cake they order from us. 
Personally, I'd rather they spend the few hundred $$$ on the cake!
any little celebration can be blown out of proportion but hey if they want to have the big party i'll make the big cake to feed everyone (as for mho-i like celebrating those special moments but i like to be creative rather then trendy/expensive and my dh does too)
Disclaimer--No I'm just being a little irreverent--no harm intended--I made my First Holy Communion and Mom made my dress--but still just being funny here:
First Holy Communion:
designer dress: $1,200.00
pearl inlaid missal: $750
silk lace veil: $800
(creamy white limo: $500?)
party bus: priceless!
The limo can be shown in a better light!!!
I am totally being satirical--no harm intended--just being a little more ridiculous than chicklettes arriving in style. Don't hate me cause I'm funny (trying to be)
I mean I had never even heard of a party bus till I got an order for doing a cake like one for a teenager--was he 13 or something? So don't hurt me.
for the person who thinks that just spending time with family is enough for a childs birthday and that the kid will never remember the party or people is a bit mistaken, for the most part. (in my opinion)
my husband and i are polar opposites, so we can speak authoratatively on this subject. my husband came from a frugal but sucessful family, with 4 kids. on each kids birth day, my mother in law baked a cake and had the appropriate plastic toys on top for whatever my husband was interested in that year. he'd invite 2-4 friends over, along with his siblings, and they'd have a small party. he can still tell you what was on his cakes, so obviously, kids DO INDEED remember that day that was just for them.
i, on the other hand, came from a blue collar family in eastern kentucky. my mother considers herself very non-creative, so i always baked my own cake, not even sprinkles were purchased, and i usually scratched out my own birthday message in the icing with the handle of a butter knife. i was allowed to invite my cousin each year, we'd have a normal southern supper, then we'd cut out slices of the cake straight out of the casserole dish. i had to ask to be sung happy birthday to. know what i always wished, and still do? i spent every day with family, ate every meal with my family, but i really wanted just one day a year to be mine, and be worth going a little over the top and actually buying sprinkles or, GASP!!, having a cake made!!!!
ask any parent, and they'll usually tell you that the best days of their lives were the day they held their children in their arms for the first time. it's really the only day all year that children have just for them, not sharing with family or siblings and such...it's just theirs....so why should i feel like i'm being excessive as a mother by acknowledging that special day for my child...my most blessed day?
i also feel that parties should be kept within reason, not over elaborate, but geesh, people, what's wrong with making a birthday special?
It seems like a lot of people look for ways to celebrate any little thing their kid does.
Why do we give out certificates for participation, yet hesitate to give out a few certificates to the best of the best at the end of the school year?
Why do we celebrate mediocrity?
On first communion...
In our church, it is low key and reverent. Confirmands spend about 2 years studying and learning the catechism and creeds as well as the meaning behind them (other things, too, but this is a major part of their studies). They are tested on what they have learned. They are 13-14 when they take first communion. They are all robed exactly the same, in robes provided by the church (not to keep, they are reused each year). They do purchase and keep their own red stole. There are no limos. The clothing under the robe is the same as they would wear any other Sunday, not that you could see it anyway. The one "spluge" is that the church has a photographer come in and take a group picture that the parents can purchase. There is also a cake and punch reception afterward in the parish hall.
That said, first communion is a very, very big deal. In other churches of the same pursuasion that I have attended, the first communion liturgy and process was the same.
To me this is assigning reverence to a very special event.
I have had people gasp at the fact that my 11yo has had one birthday party in his life (his 7th birthday). We splurged on a chuck-e-cheese birthday party. *lol* Every other year, it is an at home event with just our family (mom, dad, and brothers). My older 2 boys have had a birthday party each up until they were about 14, then they were allowed a sleepover with a friend or two. That's it. Oh... they do get some really cool cakes, and do get to choose what they want the theme to be. After al, it is their special day.
I'd have to say that I think many people take their cues from the media, and from marketing firms. I mean...who actually makes those little caps and gowns and markets them to pre-schools?
Worse than that...who decided the kids had to have their pictures professionally taken three times a year starting in Kindergarten, and for any activity they happen to be in? Who has enough wall space for that?
They take a really crappy pic at the beginning of the year, the one you PRE-PAY for....and then at the end they dangle these really fabulous Spring pics in your face and ask if you want to buy them? Then you feel bad because they will destroy the pics if you don't buy them.
They send around the class ring order forms and booklets, the school jacket order forms, the school "spirit" attire order forms, the cookie forms, the "market day" forms, the book sale forms....ugh.
Sure, some of it is for fundraising....but it's still too much. My son knows better than to show me the "market day" food brochure.
It seems like a lot of people look for ways to celebrate any little thing their kid does.
Why do we give out certificates for participation, yet hesitate to give out a few certificates to the best of the best at the end of the school year?
Why do we celebrate mediocrity?
The award that bothers me the most is one that's earned for something that probably should not be encouraged: perfect attendence. Schools also tend to give nicer things for being a chair warmer than they do for honor roll or meeting state testing requirements.
This year our school didn't have the money but last year all the kids who were there every day got Ipods, this is an elementary school mind you. Honor Roll gets a paper certificate and if they get anything for improving their test scores it's something the teacher pays for like a pop or a candy bar.
If you miss a day for any reason, death, important family event, or doctor appointment, you don't get the prize. And we're rewarding children for coming to school sick and infecting everyone else with colds and flu. 
The award that bothers me the most is one that's earned for something that probably should not be encouraged: perfect attendence. Schools also tend to give nicer things for being a chair warmer than they do for honor roll or meeting state testing requirements.
Perfect attendance is an unnatural ability. I mean I thought the object of the game was to be as inventive as possible in order to stay at home the most and still pass. Perfect attendance floored me too. Totally beyond my skill set. No Ipod for you!!
. And we're rewarding children for coming to school sick and infecting everyone else with colds and flu.
I'll never forget my daughter's 1st grade teacher said one day that she never misses a day she even comes to school with a fever wanting (I guess) to be admired and be praised for her loyalty and devotion--
I said, "Please don't breathe on my kid." Du-uh.
The award that bothers me the most is one that's earned for something that probably should not be encouraged: perfect attendence.
....why should perfect attendance not be encouraged? Not that I think it deserves cakes and limos, but, you know, kids who learn to go to school every day even if they're sick don't have as many problems with getting fired for not showing up at work as adults.
About birthday parties: children do not usually remember their FIRST birthday party, even if they remember others. I, personally, have only the vaguest memories of most of my childhood birthdays, with the exception of my 4th (my brother was born the day before and I had my cake in the hospital with my mother and this great new living toy that I have wished to return ever since he turned two) and 16th (I was allowed to have two friends go to dinner theater with me). I know we had everything from family dinners to skating rink/pizza parlor types. Usually, it was a joint party for my brother and I, though we each had our own cake and our own piles of presents.
To this day, I can say that the most important thing about my birthday was that I didn't have to do chores on that day. That was WAY more important than the party to me and my brother. We also picked new chores for the next year, since my brother and I have our birthdays about six hours apart.
As for first communion, I'm not Christian and have never had one, but I think it seems a little hipocritical to be arriving in a limo for a service to dedicate oneself to a man-god who overturned the tax collectors in the Temple because money did not, in his opinion and the opinion of his father, belong in the holy places of the people.
Also, many professional photographers should be taken into a corner and spanked; they seem to have little respect for the meaning of an ocassion in their zeal to get "the best shot." Disrupting the event devalues the photographs, in my opinion; they might be artistic but the subject is going to always remember how the photographer shoved the priest out of the way to get it when they look at it. (Or whatever.)
As for first communions being like weddings--at least for a wedding, a limousine makes SOME sense, since it's bringing the whole wedding party in their gowns, which is usually NOT just one or two people. A limousine for one little chicklet is ridiculous, even if Uncle Julius DOES drive it. Now, if you want to tell me that the limousine is picking up ALL the boys and girls who are going to this communion, or even, say, ten or so, then I can go with it and say, "Aww, that's nice, they get a treat."
When I was a student, perfect attendance was the goal. Now that I'm a teacher...when your children are sick, please keep them home! 
I start the school year healthy and by mid October, I need a sick day because of all the kids' illnesses. Parents are sending kids to school with fevers and coughs and it makes no sense. Keep sick kids home and until they are well...please 
The award that bothers me the most is one that's earned for something that probably should not be encouraged: perfect attendence.
....why should perfect attendance not be encouraged? Not that I think it deserves cakes and limos, but, you know, kids who learn to go to school every day even if they're sick don't have as many problems with getting fired for not showing up at work as adults.
How many people do you know who have been fired for attending their grandma's funeral? Or going to the doctor?
And how is a sick kid infecting everyone else teaching them anything good? What if your kid has fifth's disease and their teacher is pregnant? I suppose it's still a good idea to send them in. I can just imagine the conversation when a kid has swine flu: "It's okay to go to school sweetie, I know you'll get everyone sick but we want to teach you to go to work everyday."
Good attendence should be encouraged but not perfect because it's a goal that is unreal and puts others at risk.
Did I hear someone mention caps and gowns for pre-schoolers?
Gag.
C'mon, caps & gowns for little kids are cu-ute.
You know you'd a been a cute preschooler in a c&g.
Really --except the part about gving everyone the plague by not staying home when you're sick--I think we all need to lighten up.
Reality bites long & hard & rudely enough soon enough. So what somebody is over indulging--like it's not still the home of the free?
Let people celebrate how they wanna celebrate.
Free to live
free to learn
free to screw up
free to be free in a cap & gown
joy riding on a holy day a limo.
Bring it on, baby! Yeehaw!!
[quote="Kitagrl"....what kind of graduation/wedding are these kids who have huge FIRST BIRTHDAY bashes? haha. I have been surprised at the amount of parents who will spend hundreds of dollars on cake, catering/restaurant, etc for a baby who doesn't even know what's going on. LOL.
Your not kidding, I am making a $300.00 cake for a 1st birthday for tomorrow and it's not the first time I've done one that expensive. And they get bigger and more expensive every year. I definitely want to be doing their graduation and wedding cakes when the time comes. I'll be rich. LOL.
Jo-Ann
I had a $330 first birthday cake today, too. I did their wedding cake eight years ago when I was first starting, and have done their kids' christening/d-day cakes ever since. They refer me to all their friends and I am grateful!
Even though I think it's a bit strange to invite twelve thousand peeps to one's kid's b-day party... I'm not about to say no to the order!
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