As soon as the summer holidays finish, my thoughts turn to organising parties, whether it be birthdays, halloween or Christmas. Tonight, after having said I would never watch Katie Hopkins again I decided to view her latest This Morning sketch appearance on you tube as it was about children's birthdays. I will glaze past her comments about stay at home mums that are members of Netmums (as clearly we have nothing to offer the world) and stick to her thoughts on birthdays. To be honest they aren't that controversial. I understand that some people have to work on their children's birthdays. I also imagine, that where she can she would try not to (even though she might not admit that as it doesn't make great TV.)

Personally I have been extremely lucky that when I was at work, big man's birthday fell on a weekend. I know I would have found it extremely hard not being off with him, even though he wouldn't have had a clue what was going on. Infact I had an amazing boss who managed to move timetables around so that I could go and watch big man be a star in his Christmas play. He cried the whole way though and sat on my lap rather than the stage, but I am glad that I went. It was more of a big thing to me than him, and I would have felt a failure as a mother not going. It's stupid I know but that is how I would of felt.

When the boys have been small, my husband has taken holiday so we can spend their birthdays together, and now that they are bigger he will try his best to come home early or take half a days leave. Thankfully their birthdays don't fall in his busy time of year. That would be my birthday! I hate to say it, but I do agree that the memories of birthdays are of the fun times and I couldn't tell you if the parties I had as a child were on my actual birthday or not. Often I think they were, but I can tell you the highlights of my parties were my Dad coming home early and doing silly dancing, the flour game (which is now a firm favourite of my little men) and a cake that my Mum had made. As a Mum, I find the whole party business pretty stressful and have often arranged parties on days near to their birthdays so that I can enjoy a more relaxed day with them on their birthday.

Are kids spoilt on their birthdays? Yes. Is that OK? Yes. It isn't often that my kids get spoilt so I try to make it a special day for them. To be honest my boys are usually pretty happy if they get to have ice cream for dessert and then play the flour game, so it's not that hard to please them. Shut the curtains and get some glo sticks out and they are even happier. I am going to try and steer big man into an easy birthday cake this year after previous requirements.

At the end of the day, all I want, is for my boys to know that they are special. A birthday is a great day to make a fuss of them, but it can be done at any time. I also hope that they think they are special more than once a year! And with that, I have many parties to organise and cakes to bake in the coming months. Let the party season commence!