Childrens birthday parties

Last weekend i helped to arrange a 21st birthday party, which was fantastic, we partied until
1 o'clock the following morning, we laughed, we danced, we mingled, without a single drop of alcohol being consumed by anyone, we were all high on life, and it was amazing. On the way to the party, my daughter said to me, that it would be over by 10 o'clock because there was no drinking, this had been a specific request from the really exceptional young man who was turning 21, he had insisted that there was to be no alcohol at his party, i think that his father really abused alcohol at some time, and he did not want to put temptation in his path, even the champagne we toasted with was alcohol free.
We had a young DJ, playing the music, who while not the best in the world kept everyone on the dance floor, the food was absolutely amazing, the highlight for me was the small video clip of this young man, from birth to this, his 21st birthday, it absolutely left everyone with tears in their eyes, and as much as i tried............................. because i did not have water resistant mascara on................... even I went through 4 tissues.
What an amazing example this young man set to the youth group to show that you do not need drugs and alcohol to make a party tick.

This week i went to a 6 year olds birthday party, and the alcohol flowed like water, my niece was more than a little concerned about the fact that so many people were drinking, she was really angry that people were drinking so much at her daughters party, she was worried that her mom would drink too much and embarress herself, my heart went out to her, as all she wanted was a quiet afternoon party for her beautiful 6 year old daughters birthday party...................... she had gone to so much trouble, there was games for all the children, there were sweets, of every colour shape and size, there was hamburgers and hotdogs....her concern was would it be ruined by people drinking..........................
It really got me thinking about people and their lives, in all fairness, who has too much to drink at a 6 year olds birthday party.............................. what kind of example are we setting in the minds of these small children, what example of life are we giving them that they will take into their teen years and beyond..............................................
Surely a 6 year olds party is about playing games, and eating too much cake and spilling cold drink all over, and laughter and ballons, and the blowing out of candles, and the opening of presents, and being the centre of attention for the day, since when did childrens birghday parties become, bottles of wine and whisky, what is it that we as adults need, do we drink to dim the pain of live, do we drink to forget the problems, that we have, do we drink to face our responsibilites, is life so hard, is it so difficult that we cannot even think of someone else even a six year old on her special day on her birthday, have we become so selfish that we can not do this even for an afternoon.................................................