Vn63.1 Another Birthday Party 8/12/77

This was a party for Robby’s Boston friends, boys he has met while
at school here. With respect to planning, this party was pretty much a
rerun of the party in Guilford (cf. Vignette 53). The party favors were
the same: Hershey bars, bubble gum, and balloons. Match box racers were
still Robby’s ‘prizes’ of choice and the game to decide priority of
choosing the racers was again to be ‘Pin the tail on the donkey.’ A new
wrinkle was added by Robby’s attending the party last week of his friend
John. Then, the children played ‘Pin the ear on the Snoopy.’ The idea
was adopted here. The children waited impatiently while Robby opened
the presents. He was delighted to get several ship models and a game.
The boys were astounded that Miriam had made Robby 9 birthday cards.

Most of Robby’s friends were out of town on vacation. The three
boys who did attend were brought by their parents and picked up by them.
The suburban distances and the parents’ schedules provided a more rigid
time frame than that of the party in Guilford. One child had to leave
early; thus the cake eating ceremony was moved forward in time. This
circumstance helped fill the gap created by having no other games planned
for inside play on this sporadically rainy day. When Reese left early,
Robby showed the other 2 boys his collection of models, and they decided
to play outside even though the sky was overcast and the court yard
flooded. So the game of the day was kickball, with a huge puddle for
first base.

Miriam sulked inside. I believe she was jealous of the attention
Robby received (2 birthday parties is excessive!) and she was mad at me.
Her attempt to pin an ear on Snoopy was a dismal failure; the ear not
just missed Snoopy, but was pinned on the perpendicular wall. Since I
had been the spinner of children, the fault was mine. After Miriam’s
persistent complaints, this evening, Robby advised her that there was
a good trick she had not yet learned: when you play ‘pin the tail on the
donkey,’ you don’t start walking right after the spinning; you wait until
you’re no longer dizzy, then walk straight forward.

Relevance
These two vignettes on birthday parties indicate the balance of
plan/script driven behavior and a general coping with whatever comes up.
Miriam found herself very much on the periphery of this party as of the
other. Robby’s advice indicates that he and Miriam both find it possible
to communicate in the language of ‘good tricks’ for coping with trouble-
some situations.

Print Friendly, PDF & Email