I watched a clip on the news about a new show Outrageous Kid Parties. To be fair, I have not seen the show (and don’t plan on watching it) but I couldn’t help but think about what I would do if I had an unlimited income and a large birthday budget. The party featured on the news cost about $32,000 which to me is unimaginable. Most of the people I know didn’t spend that much on their wedding!
I don’t know anything about the families throwing the parties, but I can only hope they are not going into debt to have these lavish events.
What would you do? If you had the budget of Bill Gates would you throw your kids an expensive party or would you keep it simple? Personally, I believe you can throw an outrageous party for your child for very little! A little creativity goes a long way! It is possible to throw a frugal birthday party for your child. I’ve done it and I’m sure most of you have too!
A red carpet birthday my daughter went to last year that was done on a budget. 
Never. Not in a million years. Do you know how many orphans that would help?
Why spend that much when you can prepare a perfectly fine party for a whole lot cheaper?
I’ve been thinking and I honestly don’t even know how I would get the cost up that high. Fly them all somewhere??? I don’t get it.
Personally, I think that $32,000 is a lot to spend on *any* party, but I see where these people are coming from… they have a much larger income and with it comes bigger houses, more expensive cars, designer clothing and whatnot, and they feel the pressure to keep up with the status quo of their social circles. I’m sure $32,000 for a party is peanuts for them and they certainly have not amassed their wealth by squandering it. Their “standard” is different than ours and it is not appropriate to judge them by our standards… to do so would be catty and make us seem like much worse people than we consider ourselves to be…
In a much smaller scale I see the same pressure amongst the mommies in my town… everyone is constantly looking for the newest, funnest, most original themes and venues for their own little one’s parties… I must not be popular enough, since I have not received an invite to any one of those “outrageous” parties, which is just as well, since I prefer celebrating birthdays privately with close family…
For us, that’s an extraordinary amount of money to spend on a wedding, too. I’m not sure how we’d feel about it if we had Bill Gates’ type of money, but I’m hoping we’d still have the same values. Spending that much money on a child’s birthday party is outlandish, and sets you up to have to come up with bigger grander and more outlandish the next year. We’d probably fail horribly if we had those kind of social circles to contend with! LOL
I could see myself spending that much money on a birthday party if our income was much higher than it is and that was the norm amongst those we knew. Venue, food, staffing, activities and transportation can add up quickly in some of the larger cities.
Since that would be about half what we earn in a year now though we wouldn’t dream of spending that. We usually spend a few hundred dollars on special birthdays 1st & 10th so far, probably 16 & 18 once we have kids that age. The rest of the time it’s a simple party at home with family.
Gosh, I hope I’d never spend that amount. Even if I were extremely wealthy and that amount wasn’t going to break the bank, I hope I’d still find it important enough not to spoil my children. I can certainly see myself spending MORE than I do now because I love to throw parties and think it would be fun to really be able to do up a fun theme without having to watch my pennies BUT spending that much just teaches your children that 1 day of their life is more important than so many other people/issues/things. That’s not the sort of self-indulgent mindset I want to create, no matter my income level.
This show makes me very sad, and I’m reminded of my own over-indulgence. The poorest American is richer than most if the world! $32,000$$$… That same amount of money could provide fresh water wells to 2 villages for 20 years! Americans should be outraged by this show, NOT entertained!
The kids dont care how much you spend. Why, when I was a kid (old person talking now) the biggest fun was CAKE! lol picking out a gift and wrapping it myself, then watching them open it was a lot of fun for me. Our children tend to be over stimulated, over compensated, and over fed. By the time they are adults, I fear they will see that as the ‘norm’ and wont know how to be content with simple things.
I’d like to think that even if I could be perfectly comfortable for life with so much money, I would spend my extras on helping others (the poor or uninsured or school districts lacking funds and firing teachers here in the U.S., and the many missing clean water or shoes overseas).
I saw the show. The birthday girl in the first episode is the youngest child in the family and horribly spoiled. The teenage daughter said that she is turning 16 this year and probably won’t get a party like her 6 year old sister. The wife wasn’t being completely honest with her husband about the cost at first. He gave her a $10k budget, and she more than doubled it for just the venue. The child’s dress for the party cost $750 and that didn’t include all the accessories for the little princess. I think I would be embarrassed to spend that much on a 6 year old’s birthday.
If you throw thousand of dollars worth parties, imagine how your kid will grow up. He/she will think that he/she can have anything in the world. I like to spoil the kids every now and then but not like that. And as Brenda said, can you imagine how many children you would help if you’d donate that amount?
that is more than our annual household budget! We get along, a family if four that homeschools, on $2,400 a month.
I am the mother iof 6 and even if we had the money I would not spend that. I would rather put it towards college education. I would not even spend that on a wedding. I watch this episode and this child was extremley spoiled. My son for his 16th bday got an expereince cell phone it was 300 dollars but it was time for an upgrade so the phone was like 100 bucks. i have taught my boys that its the tought that counts not the dolllar amount. At six years this is just wasting money what are they going to do to top it next year.
At this time in our lives, I could replace my HOUSE for that amount…but I can’t say that I wouldn’t spend the same percentage of my income on a special party for one of my children (though I would hope that we would be using at least the same percentage towards local charities).
I saw the show. It was hard to even watch because it was so ridiculous and the little girl was very spoiled and her attitude showed it. Our family of 6 lives off about the same amount of money for an entire year! My husband was watching and he about died . . . it was awful and kinda made me sad that so much money was being wasted on a party (yep, I think it was a waste).
Ok, this is ridiculous! Who can justify spending that? What’s the poor girl going to do when she has to pay for things herself and goes into the real world with unrealistic expectations.
I have to assume these people make a huge amount of money and their friends do as well. So it’s much less to them than it is to the rest of us. The original budget was apparently $10K. If that seems reasonable to their budget it really makes me think that the earning power is somehow very skewed. I’m thinking that we value things a little wrong. I think a soldier in a war zone should be making more money than the guy who sells you your house or runs the bank or manages a phone company or plays a sport.
It’s hard to say for sure of course, but I think if we earned a couple million dollars a year I’d be willing to spend $500-$1000 on a party. We’d go somewhere cool, invite more people, serve a fancier than costco cake and something good for lunch. Whoever mentioned the $32K could help so many orphans…really, that makes me so sad to think of how frivolously so much money is spent in light of the tons of people who really need help.
I didn’t watch the episode either but have seen the previews. All I can think is how many people could be reached w/the gospel of Jesus Christ and His love w/$32,000. I would hope that no matter our income, our first priority would be for the Kingdom, those souls that will last forever.
I have to say at first glance that is about the most fraudulent, disgusting waste of money I have ever heard. How many pairs of shoes would that buy for the kiddos in Haiti who have next to nothing right now. (My daughter is attending a mission trip there soon.) Also, that much money would go a long way in financing more trips to these kinds of areas that have real, desperate physical needs to meet along with the WAY MORE IMPORTANT need of sharing the Gospel of Jesus Christ. My goodness, where are our priorities…
Funny you should post this on my youngest daughter’s 7th birthday.
I would never spend $32K on any party. In 12 yrs and 4 kids, I’ve only thrown two birthday parties where we invited other children. It’s usually just us or maybe some surrogate relatives. Other times we’ve gone horseback riding (the request on the birthday girl) or taken a few days to go to Sea World.
I don’t think many of my friends do parties either. I can’t recall being invited to more than 2-3 parties over the years. Which is fine by me. I’d rather my child send heart felt cards & small gifts to close friends than have to buy a bunch of meaningless gifts for acquaintances.
I also observed at the birthday party of a friend’s daughter who is in public school that although the kids knew each other, the parents didn’t say “Boo” to each other. They didn’t even bother to get to know each other. The following month I invited that family to attend my daughter’s party in the same birthday venue. Not only were all the moms rearranging the chairs to face each other & chat, but my friend was welcomed & included immediately by my other friends who didn’t know her. It made an impression on her. — My point is…both parties cost about the same, but the interactions were completely different.
I haven’t seen the show, but I have seen the previews. Our family of soon-to-be 8 makes just over that amount for the entire year. I can’t imagine spending that much on a birthday party. Although, as some have pointed out, they clearly make loads more money than we do. I can’t even imagine the $10k budget she was originally given. My son watched a show (not sure where) about sweet 16′s. Apparently someone spent $1 mill on a sweet 16 party for his son, some rapper or sports guy or something. Absolutely disgusting. Are they going to support these kids forever? What are the chances of them earning that kind of living on their own, especially after having life handed to them for years. I certainly hope that even if I were able, I would have more sense than to spend that much money on a party. Do they know how many kids in Africa they could have fed with that money???
I had 2 episodes on my DVR and just watched them. I Googled the show and this blog came up, hooray for the voice of reason!
The money is over the top, but the real problem with the amount of money is that these families are NOT rich. They don’t have that kind of lifestyle. But what really bothered me is how rotten and out of control the children were. It was shameful and the mothers were encouraging it. “Oh the little darling is just so special that we give her anything she wants.”
Those kids will grow up to be a drain on society and not learn to be grateful for their blessings. Thanks for letting me get it out….I won’t watch the show again. Lisa~
Wow, I cannot imagine the pressure those families are under to impress their friends if that is what they spend on a birthday party! I guess I am just extremely simple/frugal when it comes to birthdays- we have a toddler and a preschooler and I usually spend around $50 for everything: simple food, homemade cupcakes, no alcohol, simple favors and very basic decorations (my daughters actually made some for their parties this past year, turned out too cute!). We actually strive for a small, anxiety free party since my oldest has ASD, so that really helps us keep the focus on simple fun and what our daughters think is important for their birthday party. I agree that the money spent on parties is up to every family’s budget, and I have no judgement for those that spend more (for some a heck of a whole lot more) than we do, but I sometimes think those super elaborate parties are more about the parents showing off than about what their kids want.
That is crazy! I have four kids and even I had the money to go crazy that it is way over excessive. My husband is Puerto Rican and his father keeps trying to tell us we need to have a Quincenero (sp?) for our girls when they turn 15 and even had our oldest (soon to be 13) wanting one at one point. Thankfully, my husband and I are both on the same page on this and do not wnat to have one for our girls….hello, something more important is only a few years away, college!
what a great source of entertainment! To each his own! The news is filled with such horrible things and horrible stories… its refreshing to see some OVER THE TOP happiness in this world. Take it with a grain of salt. I bet all the kids that went to the party had fun too!!
For my 6th birthday all i got was a pizza, a small cake, and a bike. I felt bad because I thought it was a lot of money. Now I look at this child she has a 32,000 party! They could have fed a whole village in Africa with that type of money!