This actually happened: A $250,000 birthday party in Florida for a 7-year old girl, with limos, an adult party with alcohol, the grand ballroom for the kids, helicopter rides, horses, and wild animals. The above photo is a $1500 Coach bag-themed cake for a 10 year old girl’s birthday party created by Elisa Strauss’ Confetti Cakes. $1500 just for the freaking cake!!!! So, I ask you this? What ever happened to Pin the Tail on the Donkey and musical chairs? That’s what I did at my 7th birthday. Complete with a Safeway cake, and my friends and I had fun!
Nowadays it’s all pony rides, magicians, petting zoos, $15 goody bags, and the list goes on and on. Researching birthday party ideas for my 3 year old and realizing how expensive and stressful it was, got me thinking…how is all this pressure and excess affecting families? Well, according to experts, it’s creating a sense of entitlement among our children.
This has been on my mind a lot lately because my son turns 3 next month. I’ve got a newborn and not a lot of time to plan a party, so I thought I’d do one at Pump It Up and have them take care of clean up, etc.). BUT for all the food for kids and parents, favors, and everything else it would cost upwards of $500 (for 10 kids). I’m sorry, but I just don’t want to spend $500 on a party for my 3 year old. I’d rather buy him a few memberships to cool places around here that we can enjoy all year long (Sea World, Legoland, Birch Aquarium, Science Museum – we already have SW and LL memberships) and have a little celebration with food and cake and games for the kids, but no one does that anymore. It’s like kids in 2010 don’t like games like musical chairs and pin the tail on the donkey. I’ve gotten so stressed out about keeping up with the Joneses and giving my son and his guests a good party that I think I might just scrap the whole thing and just do something small the four of us.
I guess I better take out some Mommy Malpractice insurance.
