Hi, I'm Emilia Isabelle

Making Special Occasions Special

When it comes to our children’s birthdays, the pressure can feel enormous. Social media shows us picture-perfect parties with balloon arches, bouncy castles, banquets and endless presents with bows. And when you’re doing it alone, that pressure weighs even heavier, you start to wonder if what you can give will ever feel “enough.”

Last year it was so important to me to give my son a special birthday with all his friends. I don’t regret it at all, and it was the best day with pizza, cakes, extravagant party bags, and 30 kids off the rails on E-numbers. This year, between house renovations, an increase in outgoing and new extracurricular activities, I couldn’t justify the cost. I felt so guilty, as though I’d let him down in some way

Then I remembered that your child doesn’t measure love in balloon arches. They don’t count the pennies you’ve spent or compare your efforts to someone else’s. For them, it’s about the magic you create in the simplest of moments. The homemade cake, the candles glowing in a darkened room even if it is only you singing happy birthday, the big breath in before a wish, your smile as you watch them beam when they open their presents, it’s those things that live in their little hearts forever.

As parents, especially single parents, we can be our own harshest critics. We beat ourselves up, telling ourselves we could have done more, given more, planned more. The reality is that the gift is the one you’re giving every single day, your love, your time, your presence. Birthdays are just another chance to see that reflected back at you in their smile, their “thank you, Mum,” their little “wow” when they realise the effort you’ve put in to making that chocolate cake after a long day at work

The magic isn’t limited to one day a year. It’s in bedtime stories, the shared giggles in the kitchen when you’re shaking your butts together, the school runs, the cuddles, the everyday acts of love that only you can give them. So, on their birthday, don’t measure your worth against what you could have done. Measure it in the light in their eyes. You’ve already made it special because you showed up, as you always do.

So lap it up, not just on birthdays but every single day. To them, you’re the magic.