Claire Dunn: It's party time for my kids but sleepless nights for me

A football party? Whatever happened to having your mates round for a party tea and a slice of birthday cake? Call me old fashioned,

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He looks at me, rather pleadingly. Uh-oh, the pressure is building.

It's not the only pressure we parents are faced with come birthday party time. These days we have to contend with a barrage of adverts enticing us to have different parties for our youngsters.

And there are so many fantastic and fabulous ways of entertaining your offspring and their chums.

You can have pottery parties, forest friends parties and cookery parties. You can even have a girlie pamper party, princess parties and to top the lot you can hire out a cinema screen just for your child and their pals.

The birthday party list is endless, daunting and growing faster than either of my young ones.

Sadly when you get to a certain age, it seems to be farewell to traditional favourites, the ones that entertained me and my chums as a child – musical statues, pass the parcel and good old pin the tail on the donkey.

Kids parties seem to have come a long way over the last few decades. They have morphed into something much bigger, rather like Halloween.

Even the birthday cakes in the shops and on websites have gotten bigger and way more extravagant than I can ever remember.

Type what you want into the computer and you can get a ready-made cake of anything you like from £8 to a heart-stopping £50.

And hello, there are even party organising websites to help you along the way, should you need a helping hand. Ta, very much.

You can get your hands on party bag gifts, matching hats, tablecloths, cups and plates. Pirates, fairies, knights and superheroes. The choice is astonishing. Even more pressure.

It's a far cry from when I was a nipper.

Birthdays were almost always spent with the family. Teatime was special, sometimes we even had the luxury of a takeaway (well, it was the 80s after all).

Friends came round to play games, eat sandwiches, throw jelly. Simple things.

And of course it was extra special as it was the one time of year my brother and sister were really, really nice to me.

So this week, preparations began in earnest for the birthdays of my two boys. Yes, both have birthdays just days before Christmas. A double whammy or triple if you count December 25.

Fortunately one is at the age where a tea party with mummy and daddy will do just fine. He is happiest with a mouth full of chocolate cake.

I am very much hoping the pleading party face will pass this one by if you dangle cake in his midst.

And now back to the football party and the soon-to-be seven year old. Did his get his party?

Well, of course, I caved in. Well, sort of.

He can have his party, but the hubby and I have decided to do it our way.

So we've hired a football pitch and dad is the ref. Then we are taking them for a pizza. Maybe I'll even have a go at baking a cake . . .