Global pandemic or not, Mila is definitely too young for me to drop her off at a friend's house for a birthday party. I have to stay, even when the so-called party is only two friends and they're really well curated and screened friends.
Mila makes bad choices sometimes. I need to be around to act as the bumpers at the bowling alley. I can't fix everything, but I can keep an eye out and generally guide Mila in the right direction.
So that happened on Saturday. Mila's best friend's birthday was this weekend and instead of having an actual party, she hosted a playdate with her two favorite friends. There was cake and presents and, I gotta say, this is one upside to the pandemic. I kinda like this smaller, less-stressful party thing. It seems like the kids might have had more fun, too. Small, focused groups play better together, I swear it.
Mila had A LOT of fun swimming and running and jumping on a bounce house thing.
Too much fun.
I let her stay for over five hours. FIVE HOURS. There is no other birthday in the history of birthdays when I've let one of my kids hang at a party for that long. It was a gift brought to Mila by the fact that I didn't really want to go home and face all of the yard work that I still have to do. It was hot, she was happy and only a little nutty, it seemed like a good time to just hang out.
But all good things have to come to an end. I warned Mila of that fact several times, complete with a 30-minute warning, a 15-minute warning, etc. LOTS OF WARNINGS.
This particular friend lives in our neighborhood. She's maybe seven or eight houses away, in fact. Do you want to guess how long Mila can scream that she wants her friend? At the top of her lungs? ALL THE WAY HOME. Do you know how terrible I looked hauling a screaming kid through our neighborhood?
Oh, yeah. I'm classy all right.
She screamed for another hour after she was home. Just for good measure.
So if you're wondering why I won't let the kid go to parties anymore, it's actually NOT because of the pandemic or because I need to stay. It's because SHE WON'T LEAVE OMG.