Post #9: Birthdays

One reason I haven't posted in a while is because I've been stressing about my son's 9th birthday. It's coming up in a couple of weeks, and I've been spending time (too much time) thinking about it and its details. Finally it's been ironed out - the place, time, theme. Now it's just the doing of it.

Why I'm writing about it is because of one aspect I am most thrilled with: no presents! Well, actually, there will be a few family gifts, because for better or worse we aren't extreme people, but we are asking his friends to not bring gifts. No pile of THINGS to deal with, to store, to return because there were two, to regift and feel guilty about, to be sad about when it breaks prematurely.

Instead, we're asking friends to consider a donation to www.kiva.org - a non profit that facilitates micro-loans to small business people in developing nations. I am fortunate in that most of my son's close friends had already started this trend of donations rather than presents, so it wasn't a hard sell. But he did want to choose the non-profit himself. Through Kiva, people can loan small amounts ($25) of money to people around the world who are trying to make a better life for themselves. They are cafe owners, book sellers, grocers - and they need a little money, like $1000, to make capital improvements, or in one man's case, be able to buy in bulk so he could sell his products for cheaper. They pay it back as they can, and with no interest. My husband has been doing this for a few months, and he gets to see profiles of all the other people who are supporting the same business people that he is supporting. Mom is doing it, too, and she agrees that it's a really fun way of donating. So our 9-year-old will take the money he raises, choose a business or two or three to loan money to, and follow their stories. When they pay it back, he'll reinvest and reinvest, and let the money just keep on helping. Much more fun than a closet full of crap.