In our house we're gearing up for our daughter's fourth birthday. Modern day children's parties are relatively new to me. At the first Christmas one we attended a few years ago I was shocked at the amount of waste generated. Food, paper, plastic toys, quickly broken. I'm trying not to get drawn into the competitiveness of it all, from hiring a venue to party bag contents. But I still want my daughter and her friends to have a fun and memorable time.
One birthday tradition that is seeming to stick is the cake. I'd not really decorated cakes until I made her first birthday cake. It was a large white base with a teddy bear head and paws on it. I was pleased with the end result and it gave me the confidence to ask her what she wanted in subsequent years. For her second birthday she wanted a digger cake, for her third the pink crept in, although it was a tractor. This year her request is a pink princess cake. I quite enjoy the mental planning of ingredients, structure including creating any templates, construction techniques and finishing touches. Together we've been searching the internet for ideas and videos of how to construct the perfect princess cake. A couple of nights ago we found an excellent series of clips showing us exactly what we wanted. My daughter likes to know details. She has a need to understand how things fit together and the logical sequence of things. Whilst we were watching the cake video part that showed how to cover any mistakes or imperfections in the dress icing with cut out flowers and clever piping (I particularly liked this bit), my daughter noticed a picture of a girl to the right of the video window. 'Is the cake for her?' she asked. The young girl was in a WaterAid advert, with text saying she was thirsty. 'No' I replied, 'The cake isn't for her'. 'Well why is there a picture of her then?' my daughter responded.
My daughter knows about injustice. In her little world it is when she is accused of something she hasn't done. She's pretty switched on, asking challenging questions as most children her age do. At some point she is going to learn more about the injustices in our world. I am waiting for the moment when she asks why we don't just dig people wells so they can have clean water or why we don't share our food and toys with them. A big part of me wants to say I don't know why. I don't know why it has got so complicated when we have the technology, the knowledge, the skills to make the world fairer. I don't know why it is taking so long. Has the majority of the world's population who are better off lost the will? I've heard some people say that only when we as a country have enough then should we give to the needy. What is enough?
Wrapping my daughter's presents last night I was torn between being excited at seeing her face as she opens them and feeling slightly guilty at adding to her possesions when she already has so much compared to so many other children. I realise that this isn't a topic that a few blog paragraphs can adequately address. I understand that there often aren't simple answers. But that doesn't mean it isn't good to view the world through a child's eyes every once in a while.
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