Birthday.

Celebrations.

To many these days are painful because they are forgotten, single, elderly people, the family is too busy to show up or because of their childhood. A birthday should be a celebration and to me it rarely was or is. Not because of gifts not liked or the stress of buying pie and food for visitors in the first place, but the expectations - or worse bad memories - that come along with this day.

It's good to celebrate the happiness of someone being there. It's important for each human to be pampered once in a while. Once a year is not too much asked.

Past.
My birthdays have never been great. Unwanted children are not in the center of attention. With more children around I had to celebrate mine with a sibling and the sibling was more wanted/interesting.
Once I was allowed to invite the whole class and have a party but my mother made me cancel it because I came back home 5 minutes late.
Each one of my birthdays was filled with violence, so were the days before.

Present.
Money or not I celebrate my children their birthday. I am saving for it. They can choose their meal and present. We mainly celebrate it with each other. My children do not like to celebrate with schoolmates who do not like them anyway and besides of us, there's no family left.
I still hardly celebrate my birthday. I prefer to spend the money on my children instead so they can shine. To me, it's still a painful day.

Future.
The older I get, the older my children get, I notice most of us no longer care about parties. Money is frequently more appreciated as gifts unless it's chocolate.
There was a time we spent birthdays elsewhere. We rented a house, stayed at a holiday park, and once went to Disney World. Who knows one day we'll do this again if I am still able to at the time all our pets died.

My favorite birthday is when I am left alone and can do as I like. No pressure, no stress, no pampering/serving of visitors, no money need because of my birthday.

A great pie makes a party out of each day.

This is my entry to @steemitblog's challenge My favorite birthday. Feel free to join too.

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