THE LEPRECHAUN FOR BOTH

Ken got a weeklong St. Patrick's Day leprechaun celebration every year. His little sister Amy got a birthday party that already felt smaller, and now their parent was staring at the gap between them.

The family has two kids: Ken, 5, born on St. Patrick's Day, and Amy, 2. Before Amy arrived, the poster hoped for an 11/11 birthday so both children could have a "lucky" "holiday" birthday. That didn't happen. Instead, the poster says the "second child thing is 100% a thing", less control, more looseness, and more worry than when Ken was born, especially because Ken was a COVID baby.

Ken has had a party every year since his first birthday, packed with friends and family. Amy's first birthday was different. The poster wanted something bigger, maybe even to hold it later, but the party ended up being at home with close family and fewer friends because of space. Amy did get a bigger celebration for her second birthday, but the memory of that first one still sat with the parent.

Then came the leprechaun.

Two years ago, the poster was babysitting a niece who was making a leprechaun trap for school. The poster helped build it, and made one for the family, too. Since then, a leprechaun named Rascal had been "visiting" the house every year for the week before March 17, leaving behind mischief and excitement. The poster thought this was just a general thing parents did, like "the elf in the shelf." It slowly became a Ken-specific tradition. Ken got excited every year. Amy, the poster believed, was included too. Their mom later said she had been told something different.

That changed that morning while decorations were going up. The poster asked their husband if they were leaving coins for Amy. He said no. The leprechaun was only here for Ken, he said. When the poster asked whether anything special would be done for Amy's birthday, he said no. His reasoning was blunt: by the time Amy was old enough to notice there had been a leprechaun for Ken's birthday, they'd already stop the tradition because Ken would be old enough to know leprechauns aren't real.

The poster pushed back. They said they'd started the leprechaun when Ken was 3, only eight months older than Amy is now, and worried Amy would still remember the difference even after a couple more years. More than that, they worried about the future: Amy growing up and looking back at a "weeklong celebration of her brother's birthday" with streamers and balloons, while her own birthday got less.

Their husband called the concern ridiculous and said the poster was being an AH.

Later, the poster changed course. They rewrote the leprechaun note so he "loved the balloons and streamers mom and dad put up," hoped both kids had a wonderful St. Patrick's Day, and left money for both. Ken was told that the decorations came from his parents, so he'd know the leprechaun was for both of them. Amy got a big moment, too. The poster told their husband they would decorate every year for both kids, and the children would know it was them, not magic.