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So now I've seen how the "other side" lives...


kentuckymom
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This post is all in fun, so please don't get up in arms about it no matter what viewpoint you're coming from.

 

My daughter was invited to a birthday party by a preschool classmate at 10:30 on a Sunday morning. My first thought was, "Seriously? Who has a party at 10:30 on a Sunday morning? We live in the Bible belt. Don't they know many people are in church at that time?" Despite my initial reaction, the birthday girl is one of my daughter's favorite kids to play with, so I decided we should go.

 

The party was this morning. My daughter had a blast. I went to the 8:30 service so I didn't miss worship. She rode with Dad and brother to church and then came home with me and we went to the party. As I said, my daughter had a blast, and I don't think it's going to be detrimental to her spiritual development to have missed church once when she was five to go to a birthday party. I just needed to comment somewhere where no one who attended the party will read it and get offended that the whole experience was kinda surreal to me because I just really had no feel for what families that don't go to church do on Sunday mornings.

 

Apparently some of them throw birthday parties at the offices of a non profit at which they serve mimosas. I've never been a children's party at which alcohol was served. Mind you, the parents weren't getting drunk or anything and I don't think it was wrong, just weird. My daughter's friend's parents are definitely not the kind of people in my usual circle.

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I think it's weird when alcohol is served at kid birthday parties, but I see it often. I never have any...it just feels wrong to me. I am find with alcohol, but just not then.

 

But, a mimosa might be seen as a reward for hauling my sorry butt out of bed to go to a birthday party for five year olds at 10:30 on a Sunday morning.

 

I do attend church, but I never stop complaining about having to get up on a Sunday morning. We are UU, it's not like we have to go if it's cold out. Nothing is going to happen, lol. Anyway, I always get outvoted on that and we have to go.

 

But I might change my mind if we served mimosas......

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I have in-laws who are married to Mexicans; there is a definite culture, at least for them, of having alcohol at kids' parties.  Part of it is that the party isn't really just for the kid - it's sort of a social occasion for all adults to celebrate whatever (birthday, baptism, etc.) and the kids do the kids things and the adults do the adults things.

 

The only baby shower I ever went to had wine.  My mom also served wine at my baby shower, I dunno.  I just didn't drink any :)  Makes it easier for lots of people who don't know each other well to socialize, maybe.

 

We don't go to church.  Our Sunday mornings are a lot like Saturday mornings, hah. :)

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Any excuse for a mimosa. :)

 

We don't attend church, but it wouldn't occur to me to have a kid party at that time of day. And we wouldn't do it on a Sunday, because we have friends who go to church.

 

We have, however, offered beer at a birthday barbecue. Joint party for a kid and an adult - celebrating both birthdays. When it's just a kid party - no alcohol, generally.

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I have in-laws who are married to Mexicans; there is a definite culture, at least for them, of having alcohol at kids' parties.  Part of it is that the party isn't really just for the kid - it's sort of a social occasion for all adults to celebrate whatever (birthday, baptism, etc.) and the kids do the kids things and the adults do the adults things.

 

This. 

 

Nothing about the situation you described is strange to me, OP. Sorry. I guess I can see how it might be strange to some here.... kinda... a bit.

 

It's just a different culture. Not necessarily Mexican or a different country, I am Caucasian Australian. Just a different culture and perspective. 

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10:30 is brunch time.  Mimosas are a pretty common brunch drink. 

 

I guess we are the other side, LOL.

 

Generally, I don't have parties on Sunday mornings, Friday evenings before shabbat is over / Juma maghrib prayers are read. We have Jewish, Muslim, Hindu, and Christian friends and kids over for nearly every party, as well as your standard issue atheists. This makes sleepovers hard but what we try to do is have pickups on Sunday starting at 8:30 and promise to have them in Sunday clothes, OR we offer to save cake until 8 p.m. on Fridays, "before or after dinner drop offs welcome, cake at 8:30!". Some poor darlings have both shabbat and Sunday school to deal with.

 

However... when parties are at home, adults are most certainly offered a drink or two. :)

 

My family has mimosas every Christmas brunch, Easter brunch, and we aren't even Christians, heh. What is Easter without a little sparkly?

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FWIW, I live in Southern California and in our broader social circle church attendance is the exception rather than the rule. If I stretch my brain I can think of maybe two church-going families, and one family that runs a Hillel so they probably regularly do services, but that's about it.

 

I wouldn't think twice about organizing a Sunday morning birthday party. I have no point other than that regional differences are alive and well in America.

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:blink: Really? I've never been in a group that had mimosas for brunch.

We had a brunch wedding reception at 11am on Memorial Day. We served mimosas and bloody marys. Because it was morning and Memorial Day they only charged $6 (1993, but even still...) a head and the buffet was lovely.

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I would have found it weird 20+ years ago when my experience was limited to growing up in southern states where there was always an undercurrent of alcohol=sin. After living another 20+ years in other states and countries, around a less homogeneous group of people, mimosas don't set off my weird radar at all. People have brunch. People attend churches that meet more than just on Sunday mornings. People belong to faiths where Sunday isn't THE day. There is a social pressure in the south to attend services regularly that goes beyond religious devotion and isn't present everywhere.

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The birthday day/time is strange to me, but eh, to each their own. We can go to church on Saturday evening or Sunday evening, depending on which parish we attend. The one I'm registered at only has early Sunday am service which is a killer to make so we seldom go there. I actually went tonight because I knew we'd be rushed this morning to get to the other ones. So, if ds had been invited to a Sunday morning party we would have just gone to another service. But being somewhere at 10:30am on the weekend? Not really my cup of tea.

 

My question is, how as the attendance? Did a lot of people miss because of church you think?

 

Also strange to me about the alcohol since some counties refuse to sell it on Sunday I would think some people refuse to consume it on Sunday.

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Goodness, I served mimosas and red velvet pancakes at our restaurant for Valentines Day and we ran out of champagne by 10:20, lol. Note to self: Bottomless Mimosas for 4.99 bring out the ladies.

What's the real number? I had brunch at a place where "bottomless" meant 4 (maybe . . . Can't remember exactly.) I have one and I'm good, but a friend found the limit one day. I'm a much cheaper date.

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I wouldn't have thought twice about it.

 

10:30 is a bit early but I can see the wisdom in it for young kids. They are still fresh for the party, reasonably well fed to start thanks to breakfast, and assuming it only lasts a couple hours, you'd get the whole rest of the day to decompress and chill. Sounds like a win.

 

As for Sunday, it would never occur to me that it's any different to anyone than Saturday.

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I don't find it terribly strange, although Sunday morning would not be on my radar because the great majority of people I may invite would be at church, and we also go to church.

 

However, let me just say that as a host, I will never again organize a brunch for any purpose! There is not enough lead-up time for me to clean and prepare food the way I want. I did a brunch one time and realized that was the worst party (for me) ever. I was also making food for so much of the time that I barely saw my guests - clearly, poor menu selection on my part.

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A month ago I'd have agreed it was a strange time for a party, but we just had my daughter's party on a sunday from 10am-noon. It was NOT my first pick, the party was orginally scheduled for the afternoon, but then she got sick and we had to reschedule to another day. The venue we held the party at only had one timeslot available for the next MONTH so we took what we could get. My 6 yr old was already upset we had to reschedule her party, waiting a full month would have been awful for her. However, in our circle I'm probably the only church attender so it worked out fine. My plan was to go to Mass at 5:30pm that day but then I ended up getting sick, so I did miss church that day. But not because of the party. 

 

Had all our friends been church people too I might have figured out something else, but they aren't. I'm the token religious person :)

 

Oh, and no mimosas but if I'd thought of them, and if the venue would have allowed them, I'd have been all over it. We did serve alcohol at her party last year, when it was at our house. 

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Mimosas for a brunch party sounds fantastic even at a kid party! The 10:30 party on Sunday seems odd to me though but not unheard of. Most of our social circle do not attend any Sunday service so I don't see why they wouldn't pick a convenient time for them. We would likely either go to an earlier Mass, skip the party, or tell them we'll be there after Mass.

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I had a mimosa made with fresh squeezed OJ last summer and it ruined me. This Midwestern gal had only ever had OJ from a carton. Now, I know how the other half live and they don't drink that bottled swill.

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OP, it would all seem a bit odd to me too.   I'm very much pro-mimosa, but when I think of "kid's party" I don't think of alcoholic drinks. 

 

Not sure if Sunday morning kid parties are a regional thing so much as a circle of friends/acquaintances sort of thing.  When I lived in Portland (not a hotbed of churchgoers) I was never invited to a social event on a Sunday morning, simply because the people who would have invited us would be in church too.  Non-churchgoers would like be at a soccer game.  :-)

 

(Back in the day before online sales, we had to get up very early in the morning to wait outside a record store to buy our concert tickets.  A friend and I made a deal:  I would be the one to arrive at the store at 5:00 am or so, and he would bring the mimosas at about 7.  Good times!)

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Also, how else are we supposed to make it through a 5 year old's birthday party? It's a great public service to the parents, plus, healthier than sofa. Cheers.

 

No kidding. At dd's last birthday party when she turned seven, she had her friends over, I had my friends over, and the adults had wine. Everyone survived and had a great time. It wasn't like we got hammered. We had 1-2 glasses each. 

 

When non-drinkers hear about alcohol at birthday parties, I think they have this mental image of us lined up at the kitchen counter doing shots of tequila or something, rather than sipping a glass or two of wine over a few hours. :P

 

I probably wouldn't have a morning birthday party just because I take forever and a pot of coffee to wake up, but I wouldn't find it strange.

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no really.  It is very common brunch drink.  

 

My first mimosa was at a church Pascha celebration brunch.  Yummm.

 

 

Mmmm I love them, although my  husband calls them a waste of perfectly good orange juice.

 

I have been to many kids parties with alcohol, but they are typically for very young kids whose parents are inviting over their friends who happen to have kids (rather than classmate parties).

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