How much money for birthday party?

[yourstorytalk]

How much have you spent on your child's birthday party? Do you not have a problem with spending thousands of dollars on birthday parties or on special occassions for your child? Do you buy designer clothes for your children?

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[myboysmom]

I have never spent over $100 on my children's birthdays, decorations, table service, food, and presents all included. To do much more than that on a regular basis is asinine. If it's a special age and you want to do a little more, fine. But thousands??? Come on. We're on the edge of a recession, last I heard. And I won't even go into how fast kids outgrow clothes, so it would be pointless to buy designer brands.

[doncobeth]

My little girl has a few 'designer clothes' - but they have been picked up from Lifeline or Op Shops second hand for a dollar or so. Most of her clothes have been bought from Big W or Best and Less on special, because she outgrows them so quickly, or they get ruined by paint etc. And reality is she doesn't care at this point. We love second hand shops for kids clothes and stuff - it's good for the environment - we are recycling/reusing - and it's good for our wallet. Children (especially when little) often outgrow stuff before it is stained/ripped etc.
Birthday parties and stuff??? Haven't been there yet, but wouldn't imagine spending much on them. Our budget is too tight. We tend to do a family trip somewhere for the day (my daughter's last birthday we went to the Museum (free entry), then went to the park for an icecream). They tend to be lots of fun, and don't cost a fortune.

[KelEMcE]

Thousands, no. Hundreds, yes. My girls get a big blowout bash each year. I do it at home, we usually invite about 20 girls to each party. My girls take lots of lessons and have several different groups of friends - ballet friends, gymnastics friends, the skaters, the school friends, and the neighborhood kids - and this brings everyone together to celebrate. We don't have family nearby, so our friends take the place of family for birthdays. Siblings are usually welcome, although less so as the kids get older. My oldest favors a "half" sleepover (all the fun but then they go home after the pizza instead of sleeping over) and loves to ask our hairdresser to come and do hair at the party. My younger daughter loves a party in our backyard. When you add up the cost of invitations, favors ($5 a kid), decorations, and food (I always serve grown up food, too, so we don't have to eat pizza), the party can cost $200 or more. Add gifts for the birthday girl, and you can see why it adds up. We don't buy our kids a lot of toys all throughout the year, so birthdays and Christmas is a time for us to buy them those special things that they just can't really save up for on their own.

I don't consider it "assinine" in any way. We can do it, we love to do it, we think birthdays are a big deal. It's the ONE day a year when the birthday child can be the queen for the day. Why not? She gets to plan the party, choose her birthday meal, everything, right along with me. Before we know it, they'll ask us to drop them off at the movies with their friends. Right now, they love a big party at home with all their friends. My girlfriends look forward to our parties every year, because it's fun and relaxing for the moms to get together and chat, too.

As for designer clothes, not so much. We like Gymboree, Target, Gap, Old Navy, Justice, Limited Too. Any Ralph Lauren or such was a gift. We have girls, my sister has girls, my best friend has girls. A lot of hand me downs, but each girl gets new stuff each season, too. My niece has clothes that have been through 5 other girls, and if it's high quality, it still looks good.

[mom1931]

No way!! Kids usually outgrow whatever they are now. I would may be spend maximum a couple of hundred bucks....if its a first bday...for regular bdays...it would be a way lesser than that. I would prefer saving it for their college/education..!!

[myboysmom]

KelEmcE -- I was thinking in terms of my 4 and 2 year old. I imagine that when my boys get older, we will go over the $100 on b-days with their friends, but probably not by much. And if it's the only "big deal" of the year, then more isn't unthinkable. There are so many parents, it seems, that go overboard for every minor occasion in their kid(s) life, it just gets to be a bit much after a while.

[KelEMcE]

hi myboysmom! my girls are only a couple of years older than your boys! I've always done the party thing in a big way, even when they were younger. I guess it's just that my parents always made a HUGE deal out of our birthdays, so I love to really do it up for my kids. When they get up on their birthdays, ever since they were two years old, there's a cake that i made after they went to bed the night before - lots of pink sprinkles. They blow out the candles, make a wish, and have cake for breakfast. Then they open their gifts, which I carefully arrange the night before. My oldest just turned six last month, so this is the first year we had a birthday on a school day - but we did it the same way anyway! For dinner, the birthday girl gets to set the menu and have more cake for dessert.

Parties are a big deal around here. We go all out for that one day when the birthday girl is the princess. All the girls' friends look forward to their parties, and so do I. My girlfriends think I'm nuts to have 23 kids running around playing games and doing crafts and getting out all of the toys in the house, but I LOVE every second of it. It's not chaos at all, it's very organized and fun. But I used to be a camp counselor and then a teacher, so maybe I'm just used to being surrounded by a bunch of loud kids, who knows.

I know what you mean about every little occasion - I don't celebrate every occasion with a new toy or a lunch out. I have a friend whose kids get a new toy every single time any of them get sick. But I will go crazy on birthdays. Favors alone usually cost $5 a kid, and when you have 15-20 kids, it adds up. But I budget for it and make sure I plan ahead. A few less trips to Starbucks really makes a difference! It may seem too much or inappropriate to other parents, but for us, it's something that we really like to do, and right now we can do it, so why not?