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#Post#: 19365--------------------------------------------------
Kids' birthday parties- is skipping party favors okay?
By: swedishfish Date: November 19, 2018, 3:12 pm
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As a parent, I don't mind a bit if the hosts don't bother with
party favors. To keep costs down, which I certainly understand,
the party favors are usually cheap stuff that breaks fairly
quickly anyway. I'd rather the hosts save their money. My kids
have an abundance of toys, lol.
But when I'm the host, I alway end up conflicted on if I should
do favors or not. Sometimes I have, and sometimes I haven't
bothered. But I'm not clear on if it's "expected" and if I'm
rude when I don't bother.
I was looking on Amazon for coloring books to give as favors,
that match the theme of my child's party. The most inexpensive
one is $5.99. Multiply that by the 11 children we have coming,
and it just seems so expensive for a theme the kids might not
even like. And I feel like I'd throw in crayons as well, so
that'd be a little bit more.
Can I skip it and not seem rude?
#Post#: 19367--------------------------------------------------
Re: Kids' birthday parties- is skipping party favors okay?
By: Jem Date: November 19, 2018, 3:20 pm
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I find party favors to be a waste of time, money and space. My
daughter does not need any more trinkets, and I actively cringe
at having to throw away so much plastic and candy and crap. I
would prefer parents who feel compelled to do favors make a
donation on behalf of their child and the child's friends to a
family or kids in need. My kid does NOT need more stuff!
#Post#: 19369--------------------------------------------------
Re: Kids' birthday parties- is skipping party favors okay?
By: Rose Red Date: November 19, 2018, 3:33 pm
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It's not rude. But if you want to send them home with something,
how about leftover cake in those Chinese takeaway boxes? You can
buy those at party supply stores. But that idea is more about
getting rid of cake than having party favors ;)
#Post#: 19398--------------------------------------------------
Re: Kids' birthday parties- is skipping party favors okay?
By: iolaus Date: November 20, 2018, 2:32 am
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If I wanted to do colouring books I'd be going to somewhere like
the pound shop (dollar store) to do so
For younger children I'd always do something because that is
normal where we are, it tends to be a few sweets and a slice of
birthday in a bag.
Though I remember one year my son went to one near christmas and
at the end they had 'santa' come in and give each of the kids a
selection box instead
And they have done things where they have made/decorated
something at the party and then taken it home - so a Tshirt,
bath bombs etc - along with a slice of cake
#Post#: 19429--------------------------------------------------
Re: Kids' birthday parties- is skipping party favors okay?
By: Lula Date: November 20, 2018, 11:31 am
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Maybe it's my retail-weary surliness talking again, but the
world doesn't need any more cheap, inane dollar-bin crap that
was more than likely made by children. Stickers, erasers,
bouncy balls, mini notepads, toy jewelry, keychains,
"slime"...kids forget about those things within minutes of
receiving them. Except, of course, when "Ava got a pencil; it's
not fair if I don't get one!"
#Post#: 19431--------------------------------------------------
Re: Kids' birthday parties- is skipping party favors okay?
By: guest657 Date: November 20, 2018, 11:47 am
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Most of the time, my kids never open the bag once we get home.
Maybe cute pencils get saved, but we will never use up all the
pencils we have already.
They'd get more fun out of taking home a balloon. Even a
non-helium one - they draw faces on them & play with them for
days.
#Post#: 19440--------------------------------------------------
Re: Kids' birthday parties- is skipping party favors okay?
By: DaDancingPsych Date: November 20, 2018, 2:06 pm
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I agree with you and the others, it is a waste. You mention that
you don't mind when they are skipped, so have others forgone the
party favors? If so, think of it as a trend so that you can ease
your guilt.
[quote author=swedishfish link=topic=821.msg19365#msg19365
date=1542661948]
I was looking on Amazon for coloring books to give as favors,
that match the theme of my child's party. The most inexpensive
one is $5.99. Multiply that by the 11 children we have coming,
and it just seems so expensive for a theme the kids might not
even like. And I feel like I'd throw in crayons as well, so
that'd be a little bit more.
[/quote]
Have you looked online for coloring pages? You could print a few
and create your own coloring book. I still think that this is
unnecessary, but if it helps you feel better then fine!
I would be happier knowing that my child had fun at the party. I
would rather see that money and energy be used towards making
the party fun. If the kids have fun doing a craft (yes, even if
it will get tossed after it arrives home), awesome! If you are
focused more on devising a fun party game and the money remains
in your pocket, super!
#Post#: 19441--------------------------------------------------
Re: Kids' birthday parties- is skipping party favors okay?
By: Jem Date: November 20, 2018, 2:26 pm
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[quote author=DaDancingPsych link=topic=821.msg19440#msg19440
date=1542744386]
I agree with you and the others, it is a waste. You mention that
you don't mind when they are skipped, so have others forgone the
party favors? If so, think of it as a trend so that you can ease
your guilt.
[/quote]
Mentioning "guilt" is insightful, I think. I really don't think
the kids care about the party favor bags so much but rather the
MOMS feel like they are in some sort of Pinterest/PTO/Mom of the
Year competition that can be influenced by one-upping what
another mom has done (with invitations, locations, money spent,
party favors, etc.)
My DD had her tenth birthday party at a roller rink. Initially
she said she didn't want a party, but like 10 days before the
weekend when it would make sense to have a party for her she
changed her mind. I asked her whom she wanted to invite, she
told me the five girls she wanted (some from her class, some
from the neighborhood) and I asked her to get contact
information for the parents I didn't already know. I either
called or texted the parents, apologized for the short notice,
and invited their kids to the party. They were all able to come,
they all had fun. No party favors, and relatively inexpensive.
One of the moms actually said to me, "I was so happy to get your
text inviting Stella to the party. It let the rest of us moms
off the hook. These dueling parties are getting obnoxious!"
#Post#: 19444--------------------------------------------------
Re: Kids' birthday parties- is skipping party favors okay?
By: swedishfish Date: November 20, 2018, 2:52 pm
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Thanks so much for the replies; I see I'm not alone in this,
lol. My youngest child the birthday girl in question. When she
came along, I hadn't thrown a birthday party in YEARS. (She was
our little late-in-life surprise!) I've done favors one year,
but we had a small number of children coming that year and it
wasn't so bad, price wise.
But in my crew of play date moms, it seems like I'm the only one
who doesn't do them. Most of them do the bags or cups of random
junk- erasers, tattoos, whistles, etc. One goes all out with
homemade things that fit the theme, candy, etc. I really don't
see any value in these trinkets, but I wonder if the other
parents are secretly judging me, lol.
I'm going to get over it. We do cupcakes instead of a birthday
cake, and I always make enough for the kids to take one home as
well as have one at the party. And we'll have enough balloons
for each child to take one. As one of you said, the kids often
are more thrilled to get a balloon than anything. I know my
daughter is!
#Post#: 19446--------------------------------------------------
Re: Kids' birthday parties- is skipping party favors okay?
By: TootsNYC Date: November 20, 2018, 3:07 pm
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[quote author=Lula link=topic=821.msg19429#msg19429
date=1542735110]
Maybe it's my retail-weary surliness talking again, but the
world doesn't need any more cheap, inane dollar-bin crap that
was more than likely made by children. Stickers, erasers,
bouncy balls, mini notepads, toy jewelry, keychains,
"slime"...kids forget about those things within minutes of
receiving them. Except, of course, when "Ava got a pencil; it's
not fair if I don't get one!"
[/quote]
Yeah, I hated getting that crap!
What I did was try to incorporate the party favor into a craft
of some kind. I bought towels from the cheapo store for $3 each
and acrylic paint and squirt bottles, and we stenciled their
names on the towels. (I printed out big letters for their names
onto sticker paper and cut them out; we watered down the paint a
LOT and misted it over. You could do the same thing w/ cheap
white T-shirts from Walmart.)
Or we had a Nerf gun party, and the guns I bought for the party
became their favor. Or at the knight party, we painted cardboard
shields (that was a lot of work, and I did it wrong, I should
have just printed stuff onto sticker paper to stick onto the
shields; it was too involved, but it gave the parents something
to do!)
I like the idea of balloons. Once I gave every kid 3 Crayola
markers (bought a few packs and split them up) and a little bit
of candy.
That gives kids a little something, but it's not expensive.
If you wanted to do the coloring pages, I'd vote for buying one
coloring book and getting out a ruler and an X-acto knife and
cutting the pages out, and giving every kid a few of them. I
might splurge on a cheap-o clipboard to put them on; every kid
can use one of those for coloring in the car ($3.50 at Staples;
$2.65 at Dollar General).
SO, I do think little kids sort of expect the party bags, but I
also don't think they care much about what's in them. I think
the cheap plastic stuff is SO annoying. And parents hate them.
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