Parents pay plenty for birthday bashes
FOR gosh sake, when are these excesses going to stop? Some parents are giving their kids birthday parties that cost as much as my first good car!
On a Saturday afternoon, I watched staffers hustling around the Bettendorf Family YMCA with balloons. Missy Wahlheim was overseeing the setup of a child’s birthday party. It would begin after 6 p.m., when the Y closed for the day. This was going to be big birthday fun, with lots of kids, streamers, swimming, the gym, pizza and cake.
It floored me when Missy, who is facilities rental director at the Y, said this birthday party was going to cost $1,000.
“We have three to six kids’ birthday parties here on a weekend,” she said. “None as pricey as the $1,000 party,”
And this thousand-dollar party was for a 1-year-old.
Big-ticket birthday parties for kids are a trend that’s getting out of hand. We’re spoiling our kids with luxuries that would make even a grand poohbah’s child envious.
“It’s a different world out there than the one we grew up in,” says Roxanne Arp, who runs Party Plus, where balloons, baubles and the more mundane party gizmos are sold.
These days, it’s not uncommon for a good birthday party to cost $199 at Jungle Bungle. Chuck E. Cheese’s company headquarters in Texas says at $16 per — top price with all the trimmings — there have been parents who hosted $1,600 birthday parties for a child. The spokesperson couldn’t say if any pricey parties had taken place in Davenport.
Things simply aren’t what they used to be. For many of us, if we had did have a birthday party, it was a small gathering.
“I know what you mean,” says a staffer at a Quad-City Holiday Inn. “I would have preferred a cake at my mother’s and let it go at that, but kids don’t think that way anymore.”
Now, birthday kids might feel left out unless they get a room alongside the pool at a motel. For five to use the pool and sleep overnight in the room, it can easily run from $150 to $200. That’s pretty basic, and an inexpensive way out when considering some alternatives.
Don’t overlook the costs to guests and the gifts they bring. Everything adds up at kiddy party time. “Kids like the electronic stuff, or things like wrestling figures and a ring. A wrestling setup can run $40,” says a sales person at Toys R Us.
It’s not to say that it’s all just party-party. At Jungle Bungle, with all levels of pricing, there’s pizza, soft drinks, tokens for games and a visit from Happy Dog. Chuck E. Cheese has a basic $10.99, up to $15.99 per guest, with a souvenir cup for the birthday girl or boy.
A decade or two ago, it was enough to bring cupcakes to school and have the class sing, “Happy Birthday, dear Bobby.” Then the party moved to Aunt Sue’s house for supper and marble cake with those infernal trick candles that wouldn’t blow out. Grandma would slip a $5 bill into a Mickey Mouse birthday card. A happy day for a bargain.
There’s a lot be said for hiring out a birthday party. It takes bucks, but Missy Wahlheim at the Bettendorf Y says, “We do all the work, have a special cake made, supply the decorations, pizza. We do everything.”
Mom and dad don’t even have to sweep up the crumbs.
Bill Wundram can be contacted at (563) 383-2249 or bwundram@qctimes.com. Comment on this column at qctimes.com.