Reasonable spend for a kid's birthday

Becles

Gingham_Ribbon wrote:

I'm suddenly very frightened of my son becoming school age!

Be very afraid!!

Even more scary is "keeping up with the class" parties, where everyone tries to do a bigger and better party than the last one. One parent invited the whole class, plus relatives and children from her street, to a soft play area party at £6.99 a head. It cost her over £250, just for the party :eek:

Also nearly everyone in the class has a party, so you feel like you are spending a fortune on gifts for other peoples children. I normally bulk buy packs of cheap birthday cards and wrapping paper from the Webb Ivory catalogue, and buy small gifts when I spot them on special offer.

Gingham_Ribbon

What a palaver!

For my son's first birthday, I took him to the local library. We go there a lot and they knew about it in advance. I invited some other parents and tots and they played there for free for an hour in the kids' bit. It was lovely. My mum made gingerbread!

I think it's hard for people who aren't interested in this competitive parenting rubbish to keep the kids happy without it all. When so and so gets xyz, it's hard to explain why we don't think those things are important.

I'm hoping our son will understand that we don't do all those things so mummy can stay home with him and daddy only needs to work 4 days a week. I imagine that, given a choice, at some point he'll plump for us being at work all the time so he can have the same as his pals! :rolleyes:

Caixta

Well you know what I always say, Gingham Ribbon - (see signature below)

We always have a birthday outing instead of a party. The birthday kid can bring one friend along. We have a budget for family outings anyway so bringing along a friend doesn't really add much.

And as Gingham also knows, we've always kept our children's expectations pretty low! Sounds cruel but when they get a treat or surprise they are genuinely happy and don't take things for granted.

From the start we have avoided making birthdays into PayDay. It's much more of an opportunity to honour the birthday kid and let them know in extra special ways how important and loved they are. One of our boys makes "gift vouchers" for his siblings, such as "Get out of washing up Free" or a voucher to do one of their other chores for them.

Eldest son is hitting the big ONE-O this year and is hoping to go out for a family meal at a restaurant. (We also have a modest budget for eating out). A couple of years ago he asked for "a bike ride alone with Mum" as his outing as we hadn't had a lot of quality time together, since we had a new baby in the house.

Son number 2 is asking for a shoe box full of goodies for his birthday. All the children have asked for these for the past few years, ever since we helped out at the warehouse where that charity sends shoeboxes full of Christmas gifts to needy children abroad. Our kids were so taken with the idea of a little box full of sweets and other little surprises that they much prefer this to a bigger present. (eg playstation, mobile phone and the other stuff that their friends regularly get.)

As an aside, my daughter went to classmates' birthday parties eight weeks in a row this year and all the parents were grumbling that too many parties were making the kids act spoilt. One of them suggested the parents all chipping in and holding one birthday party for all eight of those children next year.

I know it sounds draconian and like we feed our kids on bread and water all the time while making them do slave labour, but it's not like that at all. They know that we don't have endless money but they also know that they are loved to bits by the whole team.

Gingham_Ribbon

I totally agree, Caixta. A birthday outing is a GREAT present. As an adult, I find that I appreciate the time people spend with me more important than the money.

A friend gave me a bag for my birthday. It's a beautiful woollen one. Inside it was a card telling me that the bag was a much loved jumper which she had made into a bag for her much loved friend. It must have taken her ages. Although that wasn't time WITH me, it was time she'd spent doing something for me and it meant a lot. Just like the get out of the washing up tokens your lovely kids give each other.

(Edited to say that when we found out we were going to have a baby, my DH asked my best friend what advice she could give us on raising our child. It is still the piece of advice we hold most dear. It's Caixta's signature.)

kazd

My daughter had a pottery party this year, she has a July birthday, the cost was about £8.50 per head. She had six friends plus her two brothers. On her actual birthday we went for a family meal at our favourite restaurant followed by a movie. The amount spent on a present can vary between about £50 and £100.

The pottery party was a big hit, the girl brought lots of pottery items, animals, paddington, etc. The children all had their own pallettes and she had masses of colours to choose from, once painted she took them away, glazed and fired them. Great hit, then they had party food, then worked it all off on the trampoline. I do not buy presents for the party bags just loads of sweets because thats usually what the kids want.

Just remembered she also had a pinata which was from a great online place, everything matched napkins, plates, cups, bags and pinata. Even better it was in the next town and I was able to collect saving on delivery.


Just had a bit of a search and found the link for it

http://www.partyrama.co.uk/

crutches

forn his 3rd birthday our son asked for a trip to the local ford.he stood on the bridge and dad drove the car past him at high speed several times.he got soaked but loved it!
good job we had a diesel car!;)

Becles

Awww - bless!!

For my youngests sons 4th birthday, all he wanted to do was go to Uncle Davids (my brothers) house

Gingham_Ribbon

crutches wrote:

forn his 3rd birthday our son asked for a trip to the local ford.he stood on the bridge and dad drove the car past him at high speed several times.he got soaked but loved it!
good job we had a diesel car!;)

TOP birthday! I love it! We can spend ages just sitting watching a building site in action. We've even taken sandwiches, and the blokes are always friendly and never seem to think we're weird! The other thrill of his life seems to be watching the window cleaner. He watches from the inside when he does our house, then he likes to sit out and watch him do the others. (We make him a cuppa as a thank you for our noseyness!)

And as for the bin lorry, well that's just TOO much excitement. (Been-lolla!) I had the same obsession when I was little, so much so that I lost my footing on the concrete steps outside our flat and went flying down them when I was watching it.

elona

T.J. Hughes or Robert Dyas have a small digital camera for about £7.

How about a trip to go bowling and a picnic in the car afterwards.?

kabie

My eldest (9) wants a football party this year. It's not 'til December but I've already started stressing: everything gets booked up for christmas. His dad is supposed to be organising it, or at least trying to find a venue but I know it'll be down to me in the end.