What the heck is a "half birthday?"

[luvsJack]

LOL celebrate life imo means you are appreciative and joyful about the simply things in life. One of my favorite was to celebrate life is to sit in my back yard on a lovely summer morning, drink a great cup of tea meditate and give thanks on how happy I am that everyone is healthy. I don't need a "I didn't have to go to the doctors today" party.

Just my opinion.

Oh hey I totally agree with celebrating that way too! A cup of coffee while listening to the early morning birds chirp or sitting on a balcony watching the waves.

But I also celebrate by watching a group of kids have fun or seeing the joy on dd's face when all her friends are around. Hearing the laughs and giggles are musical.

I don't do half birthdays. We have had an un-birthday party!!! Its just all in fun.

Heck my niece is having a pool party for her sons baptism and she just had one for the end of school and Memorial day. and she will have another for the return from vacation and will end the summer with a back to school party. . I think she is nuts bit whatever helps them enjoy life.

 

[luvsJack]

The only thing I do about half birthdays is say, oh hey! it's my half birthday!

But my birthday is July 2. It's kind of a horrible date because people are usually gone for the holiday or because it's within the first few weeks of summer (school gets out here in mid-June). If I celebrate my half birthday, it's the day after New Year's so it's not a great to celebrate either.

I just accepted it, but I've also never had a party.

Ds could sympathise with you. his is July 3.

When he was little his dad had a ski boat and the 4th was spent at the local lake that had a huge celebration. When he was about 5 he asked if he could have a smaller party without all those strangers LOL.

 

[GigglyFigment]

I just use my half-birthday as a reason to do something nice for myself. I made it through another 6 months! Yay!

I don't see the big deal - it's not like I'm harmed by someone having a party for their half-birthday. Plus it makes sense for end of November/December birthdays. That time of year can be so busy it's difficult to get anyone to come to a party, much less one where they're responsible for a present.

 

[NHdisneylover]

Both my girls are December babies and a few people have said we should do this. We just do not do any Christmas stuff (any at all) until after their birthdays are over -it means Christmas is a bit crammed into a week or so, but it works for our family. We really try to separate birthday from Christmas, and to make sure that family members do not do the "dreaded two part gift" LOL -it happens sometimes ie a doll for the birthday and the dolls clothing for Christmas where as is she had been born in May she would have gotten it all at her Birthday

My kids' birthdays are December 22 and 26. It would stink for them if they could not do anything Christmas related (gingerbread cookies, put up the tree, go to Christmas Markets, etc) except on the three days in between.

We usually try to do one party in mid December and the other in mid January--but it can be very tough to find puzzle it all together that time of year--especially since Christmas break is nearly 3 weeks long here, and nearly everyone travels for it.

As I said before--we do not celebrate a half birthday--but I really do not get the strong dislike that some seem to have for families who chose to move the celebration to a time of year that is much less hectic for both the birthday child and likely the guests As long as you are only being invited to one birthday party a year for the child, who care if it is the "real" birthday or a week or two before or after or a half birthday

 

[camreesmom]

My daughter's birthday is Dec. 27th......good luck finding people to come to a birthday party in between Christmas and New Year! We usually have cake with the family on her actual birthday and then a party with her friends sometime in February after everyone has had a chance to recuperate after Christmas

 

[Luv'sTink]

Birthdays around the holidays SUCK! I am an adult, middle age to boot and I still think they suck!

 

[Bob NC]

My son's birthday is January 5th so his half bday always was around July 4th. We always visited my Mom's house during the holidays so we go all out.

Half a cake, half a present, we even sang HALF the birthday song!

Please tell me he didn't want a puppy.

 

[scrapquitler]

YOu have a birthday celebration and invite her school friends like normal.
Luck has nothing to do with it. What does a child do for friends in July? most children (not all but most) in elementary school are local so do all his/her friends disappear?
.

The OP was a teacher, and the child was asking about bringing cupcakes into the classroom for an in-class celebration. I was asking her what the policy in her classroom is for students with summer birthdays.

It seems a little unfair to a small child that "Mary can bring in cupcakes for her birthday because her birthday is in October, but Suzy's birthday is in July, so she's not allowed to bring cupcakes to share with her classmates because there doesn't happen to be school then". THAT'S what I was asking about, I wasn't asking about birthday parties at home.

 

[goofyintoronto]

Well said. I honestly dont understand that half birthday thing at all.

YOu have a birthday celebration and invite her school friends like normal.
Luck has nothing to do with it. What does a child do for friends in July? most children (not all but most) in elementary school are local so do all his/her friends disappear?

Then what happens to a kid who's has a birthday in september and wants to now start celebrating 1/2 birthdays? do we randomly start moving birthday celebrations. my kid is born in July and wants a skiing birthday party, do I then have to have a 1/2 day birthday celebration for him in february so he can go skiing?

when the heck did childhood become so accomodating? don't like when your birthday party falls? that's easy, make up a different celebration? team doesn't perform well, hey no problem will give you a trophy any way.

I have no problem with celebrating when there is some thing to celebrate but what's next. Oooh Johnny had a bowel movement today? parrrty!! I managed to roll out of bed today, whohoo start the ticker tape parade.

we already see the result of handing out trophies for each and every little thing. Kids have major freaky deaky melt downs when real life hits and then they have absolutely no skills what so ever to deal with the fact that no one else thinks they are princes and princesses.

Personally I appreciate my celebrations when I actually accomplished some thing, I think my kids do so also. I like having special occasions. If I do it every 3 weeks it no longer is special. case in point, my cousin who is on her 6th marriage. and every marriage she has a big wedding celebration saying how magical and special it is. SERIOUSLY? honey after 6 weddings, nothing special about it, just another excuse for you to buy a dress.

Just my take.

Thats exactly what I do in my backyard as well. Love it.

LOL celebrate life imo means you are appreciative and joyful about the simply things in life. One of my favorite was to celebrate life is to sit in my back yard on a lovely summer morning, drink a great cup of tea meditate and give thanks on how happy I am that everyone is healthy. I don't need a "I didn't have to go to the doctors today" party.

Just my opinion.

 

[goofyintoronto]

The OP was a teacher, and the child was asking about bringing cupcakes into the classroom for an in-class celebration. I was asking her what the policy in her classroom is for students with summer birthdays.

It seems a little unfair to a small child that "Mary can bring in cupcakes for her birthday because her birthday is in October, but Suzy's birthday is in July, so she's not allowed to bring cupcakes to share with her classmates because there doesn't happen to be school then". THAT'S what I was asking about, I wasn't asking about birthday parties at home.

Unfair?? Lol. I wouldnt call it "unfair". If your bday is in July, tough luck kid. You cant change your bday. I think its silly to celebrate months ahead just because the kid is jealous that most kids have bdays that fall in the school year.

If you want to invite school kids to your bday party which happens to be in the summer, simply get the phone numbers before the last day of school....or better yet, pass out the invitation on the last day of school. I had a kid who tried this, and it worked out well for him.

Anyway, if the kid wants to bring cupcakes to school, months ahead of time, there's no harm in that I suppose. As long as the school allows it. I know my DS school doesnt allow such things. Not even things like candy! They recommend pencils and erasers. lol.

 

[It'sWDW4me]

My DB and his kids have it rough - Db's b'day is 12/27, DNephew1 b'day is 12/12, DNephew2 b'day is 12/23, and DNiece's b'day is 2/17. Ever since his kids were toddlers (and thus wouldn't know the difference or that it was unusual), I suggested they celebrate their "Un-birthdays" in June instead of their actualy birthdays in December/early February.

I've always felt kinda bad for the kids in that they get this glut of gifts at Christmastime and then nothing for a whole year. I've also felt (and still do feel) REALLY bad for my savings account at Christmastime too.


ETA: Now that I really think about it... 7 out of 10 of my immediate family's birthday's are within about a 3 1/2 month span!! No wonder I'm always dirt broke at the beginning of the year!

Sept: DB#2's GF = 9/19; Mom = 9/30
Nov: me = 11/4; DB #3 = 11/21
Dec: DNeph#1 = 12/12; DNeph#2 = 12/23; DB#1 = 12/27
Jan: DB#2 = 1/31
Feb: DNiece = 2/17
May: DS = 5/2

And gone now but NOT forgotten:
Nov: DGrandma = 11/2 (since our birthdays were 2 days apart we would ALWAYS have a double celebration)
Jan: DDad = 1/10


Apparantly Feb, Mar & April are "dangerous" months for.... snuggling!

 

[eliza61]

I don't understand how celebrating a half-birthday is "celebrating mediocrity". It's a silly celebration that's fun. It's not like people are registering their kids for lavish presents or inviting 200 people over to ride ponies and eat $40 cupcakes. We regularly celebrated un-birthdays and half-birthdays and "halfway between yours and mine" birthdays when I was a kid. And that was LONG before our current culture of kindergarten graduations and everyone-gets-a-trophy. It was something silly that mom would do to make an otherwise ordinary day special. She wasn't saying we'd done anything remarkable or that we suddenly deserved a parade. She was just having fun. I don't see what's wrong with that.


Exactly! Party on.

Don't misunderstand WD, I don't think any thing is wrong if some one else has one either. But I do see OVERALL a general slide into what I call "snow flake ville".
Like I said, in my township school district we now have 4 graduations between kindergarten and high school. And while every one swears celebrations are small and "just" cupcakes, in my township parents most definitely are hiring ponies (big business), moon bounces and clowns to make each and every celebration spectacular.
I remember the looks I got when I mentioned to a teacher that moving from 4th grade to 5th was not graduating, it was not getting left back. Sorry that is still my opinion. My neighbors kid had a 8th birthday party complete with marachi band and pinata (she was born on Cinco de mayo). Around here theme birthday parties are the minimum, cupcakes to class are in addition to the star wars themed parties that rival Disney's star wars week.

But let me say I would never tell some one else there plans are over the top etc etc. I don't do it but if my kid gets invited to a birthday celebration and then a 1/2 day celebration and he wants to go, I definitely let him. I'm not sending a gift but he's more than happy to go.

I guess I look at it like when my family use to go to Disney 1-2 times a year. We stopped because we found out that it became rather routine and we were starting to nitpick over stupid stuff, it's no longer special.

Just my thoughts, I don't mean to disparage (sp) anyone who wants to have 1/2 birthdays, 1/4 birthdays, unbirthdays celebrations at all.

 

[It'sWDW4me]

Wow, you brought me back!

Arthur on PBS celebrated his 'half"bir thday and it gave me the idea.

My son's birthday is January 5th so his half bday always was around July 4th. We always visited my Mom's house during the holidays so we go all out.

Half a cake, half a present, we even sang HALF the birthday song!

We did that until he was about 10. He's 20 now and I thought he'd forgot about them but he reminded me that he loved his half birthday. Having a birthday that close to Christmas can be hard so having that summer bday was great.

Please tell me he didn't want a puppy.

 

[robinb]

Unfair?? Lol. I wouldnt call it "unfair". If your bday is in July, tough luck kid. You cant change your bday. I think its silly to celebrate months ahead just because the kid is jealous that most kids have bdays that fall in the school year.

I take it that your son's birthday was never celebrated in his classroom when he was younger. Perhaps it's a US thing and not a Canadian thing.

 

[eliza61]

My DB and his kids have it rough - Db's b'day is 12/27, DNephew1 b'day is 12/12, DNephew2 b'day is 12/23, and DNiece's b'day is 2/17. Ever since his kids were toddlers (and thus wouldn't know the difference or that it was unusual), I suggested they celebrate their "Un-birthdays" in June instead of their actualy birthdays in December/early February.

I've always felt kinda bad for the kids in that they get this glut of gifts at Christmastime and then nothing for a whole year. I've also felt (and still do feel) REALLY bad for my savings account at Christmastime too.

I think that has a lot to do with the parents.

My parents made a point to separate my birthday from NY's day. I got a birthday gift, a birthday cake, cards and a party in addition to Christmas.

Same thing with my son. His entire family gets him separate birthday gifts (he makes separate christmas list and birthday list) he gets a birthday cake and when he was younger he had birthday parties.

LOL I use to laugh because his parties were always well attended because the parents of his friends were definitely ready to have their kids spend an entire day out of the house during Christmas break (my sons usually had parties at bowling alleys, laser tag or movies theaters so kids ended up spending the night). Now most definitely we were always flat broke from doing Christmas and 2 birthday celebrations but we kept them separate.

For his 21st he wants a party in Vegas! like that's going to happen.

It's all good

 

[goofyintoronto]

I take it that your son's birthday was never celebrated in his classroom when he was younger. Perhaps it's a US thing and not a Canadian thing.

Actually his bday was celebrated in the classroom when he was younger. By "celebrated" I mean, handing out loot bags that contained the "approved" goodies. Thats pretty much all thats allowed in class. Which is fine by me!!

 

[robinb]

Actually his bday was celebrated in the classroom when he was younger. By "celebrated" I mean, handing out loot bags that contained the "approved" goodies. Thats pretty much all thats allowed in class. Which is fine by me!!

So your kid got to be the center of attention and and out goodies in the classroom. Shouldn't kids whose birthdays are in the summer also be allowed to "celebrate" in the classroom too? Even if it just means handing out loot bags?

 

[eliza61]

So your kid got to be the center of attention and and out goodies in the classroom. Shouldn't kids whose birthdays are in the summer also be allowed to "celebrate" in the classroom too? Even if it just means handing out loot bags?

Do kid's born in the summer really care? (seriously asking cause I've got really laid back kids) I mean like I said my son's bday is around Christmas. When he was in elementary school, all he cared about was that he got some free loot and free cake, it could have been Jack the rippers birthday and he wouldn't have cared. If ole Jacks mom brought chocolate cake with sprinkles, that's all it took.

Never once did he come home and say "mom how come I can't bring cake to school"?. more than likely he ran in the door saying 'look what I got" rubbing his hands together like Daffy duck, like he just hit the jackpot and teasing his younger brother with the loot.

Is there a rash of 6 year olds upset because they can't celebrate their birthdays in school? LOL. My kids thought their birthday should be a reason NOT to go to school.

 

[laurajetter]

Wow, I've only read through page 1 so far but I've never heard of half birthdays being celebrated. For my DS7's birthday celebration at school (he has a summer birthday) the teachers each year have either picked a day to celebrate it or asked me to pick a day... It was never officially termed as a half birthday.

Now that I'm thinkin about it I suppose I can understand the idea behind it for kids who have a winter birthday or one right around Christmas/New Years... might be nice to celebrate it during warmer months. I just don't think I'd personally refer to it as a half birthday, I'd probably just tell people (and only if the subject comes up) that his actual birthday is such and such but we've decided to celebrate it in the summer.

Now if people are celebrating these half birthdays IN ADDITION to their regular birthdays then that seems a bit over the top.

 

[robinb]

Do kid's born in the summer really care? (seriously asking cause I've got really laid back kids) I mean like I said my son's bday is around Christmas. When he was in elementary school, all he cared about was that he got some free loot and free cake, it could have been Jack the rippers birthday and he wouldn't have cared. If ole Jacks mom brought chocolate cake with sprinkles, that's all it took.

Never once did he come home and say "mom how come I can't bring cake to school"?. more than likely he ran in the door saying 'look what I got" rubbing his hands together like Daffy duck, like he just hit the jackpot and teasing his younger brother with the loot.

Is there a rash of 6 year olds upset because they can't celebrate their birthdays in school? LOL. My kids thought their birthday should be a reason NOT to go to school.

My guess is that it probably depends on the child. My DD's birthday is in August and the classroom birthday parties started in Kindergarten the same month school started (September). And yes, she wanted to celebrate with her friends at school the same as all the other kids celebrated. It's cool to be the center of attention when you're 5 or 6 and make other kids excited about your cake and loot bags. Even if you are Jack the Ripper . Her teacher suggested the half-birthday idea and we went with it through Elementary school. She's 13 and going into High School and she still mentions her half birthday in February but we don't "celebrate" it anymore.

One thing she has missed every year (until this upcoming August) is what's called a "birthday swim" where the birthday kid swims down a lane and the other kids line up on either side with kick boards to splash water on them. Her birthday is after summer swim season and before fall swim season. This year it will fall in HS swim practice. I hope her coach does the birthday swim thing for her swimmers .