Plan a birthday for your two-year-old, by Dave Barry.

The first thing you must decide, when planning a birthday party for a 2-year-old, is: Should you invite the 2-year-old? Because a child that age can put a real damper on a party. And probably your child doesn’t really understand that he or she is turning 2. One of the best things about small children is that they have no clue how time works. My 2-year-old daughter believes that everything that has ever happened, including her birth and the formation of the solar system, occurred “yesterday.”

I have a friend named Helene who made excellent use of this phenomenon when her children were small. If they wanted to do something that, for whatever reason, they couldn’t do, Helene, rather than argue, would tell them they could do it on “Tuesday.” If her kids wanted to go swimming, and it was January, Helene would say: “We’ll go swimming on Tuesday!” And they were satisfied, because they had a definite answer, even though it actually had no meaning. (Airport flight-information monitors are based on the same principle.)

More on Tuesday.