Article: Before you decide the specifics of a party, like what to serve or who to invite, you'll need to choose a location for the party. If you're sticking to a budget, you'll want to find a venue that is either free or very low-cost. If you're throwing a relatively small party, you can host it at your home or in your backyard. If the party will be too big for your home or yard, try booking a picnic area in your local park. Regardless of where you decide to have the party, you'll want to decorate the venue. This will help customize the space, ideally to make it unique to your child's interests and hobbies. Rather than paying a professional decorator, you can find and display your own decorations at a relatively low cost. Instead of tablecloths, you can buy a cheap roll of plain white paper and drape big sheets over the tabletops. Then leave crayons out for the kids to draw and doodle on the paper. It won't cost much, and it will add a fun element of creativity to the party. Balloons are fairly cheap, even if you buy them with helium from the store. Decorate the tables with small, low-cost party favors. You can leave a small bowl of individually-wrapped candy at the center of the table, or put out a small bushel of freshly-picked apples for guests to take home. If your child wants a theme birthday party, you can make things simple by buying plates and napkins with that theme's design on them. You can also cut costs by buying balloons and napkins that are the color of your theme - for example, red and blue for a Spiderman party, or teal blue for a Frozen party. Another easy way to cut costs for the party is by making your own invitations. You can use recycled paper on hand, or for even greater savings per project, try sending out an e-vite to the party. You can find free templates and sample invitations online. Search for "party invitations" to find examples of easy party invitation templates. If you're trying to plan a party on a budget, the reality of the situation is that you may need to invite fewer people. Each extra kid who's invited will require additional food and drinks, plus any party favors or supplies for activities you have planned. If you're worried about hurt feelings from your child's peers, consider inviting only friends and classmates, rather than leaving the invitation open to siblings or other outside friends. For infants, it's best to stick to family members and/or close friends. No two year old is going to remember how many people were at a party, and the smaller, more-intimate setting will make it feel more like a family get-together. If the child is in preschool, a general rule for the number of other kids to invite is the child's age plus one. So, for example, if your child is three or four years old, invite four or five other kids from preschool. For older kids, it's more a question of how many classmates your child is actually friends with, and how many people you can reasonably accommodate (in terms of space and cost). However, if you do invite several classmates, you'll want to avoid sending invitations to all but one or two kids, as this will alienate the uninvited kids and may cause tension. If your child's birthday falls around the same time as one of your other kids' birthdays (or a friend/classmate's birthday), consider combining the two parties into one bigger party. You'll then be able to split the cost of the party with the other parent (if it's a friend's birthday), or at least consolidate the costs instead of having two parties (for siblings). Ask around among your friends' parents to find out when their children's birthdays fall. You can bring up the idea of combining parties casually. Say something like, "Our child's birthday is only a short while before/after. Would you be interested in combining the two parties together and having one big party?" Just make sure the other parent isn't planning anything too extravagant that would break your budget.
Question: What is a summary of what this article is about?
Choose a low-cost venue. Decorate the venue. Make your own invitations. Cut back on the guest list. Consider combining parties.
Article: It's a difficult fact to come to terms with, but some friendships aren't worth repairing. If your friend consistently treated you poorly or made you feel bad about yourself, you may not want to keep that friend in your life. Your friend should show you kindness, encouragement, respect, and empathy. If your friend is generally incapable of giving you these things, or vice versa, it may not be a healthy friendship. A surefire sign of a toxic friendship is if you feel like you can't be yourself around that person. If you're forced to walk on eggshells, it's probably not a good friendship. If your friend criticizes your personality consistently, this is a toxic relationship. If you don't feel comfortable being yourself around them, then it may be a sign that you don't trust them not to use the information you share with them against you. Since healthy relationships are based on trust, your friendship may never be close if this feeling remains. A good friend offers criticism with compassion. Healthy, mutual friendships involve a balance of both friends reaching out to the other. If your friend never calls or texts you, or if you are always the one who has to make plans, there may be an imbalance in the friendship. A toxic friend may make you compete for their friendship, whereas a good friend will accept you and make time for you without exception. Toxic people tend to force you to abandon your own problems to deal with theirs. Think about how you felt around this person and ask yourself whether it was honestly supportive and comfortable to be friends with that individual. You should feel like you can generally trust your friend. You should also feel supported by one another. Your friend should inspire you to grow, and you should do the same for your friend. If you've decided that a friendship isn't worth saving, you'll need to cut off all ties with that person. Be firm and direct. Don't just block someone's phone number and avoid them forever get some type of closure by verbally ending the friendship. For example, you might say something like, "I've been thinking about our friendship and I think I need to take a break. I don't like the way I feel when we're around each other I think I need to sort some things out for myself."
Question: What is a summary of what this article is about?
Examine the way you treat each other. Determine if you feel like you can be your true self around them. Make sure there's balance in your friendship. Evaluate whether your friendship is healthy and mutually-beneficial. Cut off ties with toxic friends.