Cost of birthday parties!

[fowltemptress]

Why would you need to rent a carousel? If you must spend that kind of money you might as well do it when she's better able to form memories. I had huge parties when I was young and can't remember a thing, except the cakes had ice cream inside of them, which blew my mind back then. Is there not just a regular park somewhere, open to the public, where a bunch of kids can run loose, slide down slides, that sort of thing? At the most all you need to do is find a (free!) spot outdoors where children can gather and not break valuables, and then tell the other parents to grab their kids and meet you there. Children are more than capable of filling in the rest on their own, and will have a blast doing it.

 

[dntd]

We only have 2 parks in the city with washrooms, one has the ride the other has how do I put it, homeless people and a halfway house across the street. I could just put the kids on the ride instead of renting it, it's 5 cents a ride

 

[Cara]

Quote:
I have an idea or two, but let me say this FIRST -

WARNING - CURMUDGEONLY COMMENTS AHEAD

You made an operative statement in your opening post: "DD wants to have a birthday party."
As in, wants you to pay for her to have an extravagant, overpriced party for a bunch of FIVE year olds.
Did I read that right... 5 years old?

You have at least two options -

1. DO it
2. DON'T do it.

If you do it, then you may as well tighten the noose now, then hand her the tag end of the rope as you go into the future.
You will have set the standard for many more parties - and increasingly greater extravagances - to come.

If you don't, and seek an alternative more in keeping with your wants and budget, then you send a different message:
"Being the parent, I have pre-eminence and earn the money. Thanks you for your input, and I'll take it from here."

You've already gone to great lengths finding ways to indulge DD. However, you never really considered anything else. You'll entertain alternatives, but they are only matters of degree on the extravagance theme.

At five years old, a birthday party is a grand thing, and tons of fun. Cake, ice cream, her friends and some balloons around the chicken coop ought to suffice nicely.

That's quite the overreaction. A five year old wanting a birthday party doesn't equal a spoilt brat! She's not demanding ponies and clowns and magicians for heaven's sake. It seems that the ideas were the OP's and not her daughter's.

 

[dntd]

She has never had a party and this year has been quite hard for her with 6 weeks in the hospital stay not that that's an excuse but still. In the past we asked our kids if they wanted a gift or a party usually they chose gift. We have a $100 a kid budget for birthdays which usually gets the kids a nice gift like a bike, skates, rowing classes ,if she has a party she won't be getting a gift.

 

[agnes_day]

i feel like a cheap jerk...
i bake a homemade cake and let the birthday kid pick what we have for dinner and give him 5 bucks.

 

[Cindiloohoo]

Quote:
$80 party/$20 gift You CAN have a great party for $80 easily for a bunch of 5 year olds. The biggest hit at my DD's party was the punching balloons I got at the Dollar Tree 3 for a buck. The next best thing was the pinata we MADE full of inexpensive candy. Both of those were only around $2 per kid. If you want instructions for a pinata PM me and I will give you the recipe I use. It's just flour water and newspaper strips around a blown up balloon. It takes a couple days to dry so you and DD could have a pre-party project to enjoy also. She'll remember making it forever. We baked cookies together the night we made hers

It was fun!!!

 

[Cindiloohoo]

Quote:
Yes but you also gave each of your kids 5 other kids to play with full time.

I sure haven't...lol!!

 

[agnes_day]

pff, you mean to be the crap out of each other with..thats all they have done today!

even my sweet girl smacked her oldest brother because he wouldnt "shut up"

 

[Cindiloohoo]

Quote:
Lifetime human pinata supply....see?

Just throw some candy at them the next time

 

[agnes_day]

that is an excellent idea for the next snow day or rainy day.