In addition to the promise of spring and Easter, these can be challenging years for families, and everybody needs a fresh start. Birthdays make that possible. For parents, it's a chance to draw the line. Not the line in the sand, the line that you cannot cross over, but the same line you'd use in arithmetic. The one that allows you to add a row of figures and put the total aside.
Birthdays are about starting over and putting new numbers on the board.
Someone reminded me this week that kids, no matter how old, need victories. Defeats have a way of multiplying and piling up. Parents look at delivering their children safely to the ages of 18, then 21 as victories. Kids get an automatic W on their birthdays just for waking up. At our house, almost anything goes on birthdays.