Paradigm shift:
I had this thought/idea/theory a while back, and once I was spouting about it at the monastery and one of the monks was amazed because he had the exact same thought. Watching my cousin and how much work is required to raise children made me think about it again, and I told it to my cousin and she naturally liked it.

It was about birthdays, and how birthdays of children should be celebrations for the mother, rather than the child. It should be a day that the family appreciates the mother and all the hard work she (theoretically) performed in raising the child. As it is, mothers put in so much effort and work into carrying the child, bearing the child, raising the child, and on top of that, every year on the anniversary that the horrible-blessed event happened, she has to put in more effort to celebrate and entertain the child.

I thought for the child, instead of celebrating the birthday, celebrate some other day of significance, such as the first day they spoke or walked or whatever. But seeing how entrenched celebrating the birthday for the child is, there's not much chance of people thinking differently about it.

So now I think we should keep birthday celebrations the way they are. As the child grows up, have parties, invite kiddie friends, go bowling or miniature golfing, buy a cake and re-use candles left over from last year. But at some point during the celebration or party, attention is turned to the mother and the child is taught to show gratitude to the mother on that day as well. Maybe while everyone else is giving gifts to the child, the child on that day gets, makes, or does something for the mother. Perhaps it should be the father's or other responsible adult's role to orchestrate that portion of the celebration.

Maybe I'm being biased, maybe this is too idealistic, but this is coming from someone who grew up hating his parents, and it staggers my mind the confusion it would have created if I was taught to show gratitude towards my mother every year on my birthday! Of course if my parents put that sort of consideration into teaching me to be grateful, plus on top of that showing the gratitude, my upbringing would have been fundamentally different. Anyway, it's just a theory.

Northern Exposure Quote of the Day:
It's just a theory - Sigmund Freud