Tuesday, March 13, 2007

The dreaded goodie bag

The goodie bag. A rather deceiving name really for a bag of stuff that other parents give to kids in honor of a birthday. It sounds like a nice idea - to give kids something to remember after the party, but in truth it's a bunch of dollar store toys and candy that I probably don't want my kid to munch on. We had our first real exposure at school today. It was someone's birthday - I'm not sure who actually - and there were a bunch of adorable cartons (Batman for boys, what looked like purses for girls). I asked the teacher about it who said to take one. Andy was psyched and I know why - there were toys, bubbles, stickers and M&Ms in there. He was psyched for the toys and I made a point to hide the candy for a date when I'm desperate. No fights over it today, but I can see in the future a good fight over him insisting on eating another fistful of chocolate candy after eating four cupcakes and two juice boxes.

I find the whole goodie bag odd actually. So you invite people to a party where you give them entertainment, food and drinks. And in return for you doing this, you're also supposed to give them a trinket on the way out the door to further thank them for coming to your party? It seems like it should be the other way around almost - you do the inviting and hosting and the guests bring you a thank you for having us. The same goes for wedding favors. I could see if you were just having punch and cake that a trinket on the way out the door is a nice idea, but these days, folks spend at least $100 a head it seems on food and drink, not to mention entertainment and flowers, and then they get a gift, too?

1 comment:

  1. I couldn't agree more about birthday party favors! Most kids get too much junk and don't value it anyway. Spend a little more money or time on the party and leave the plastic junk out.

    One of the best birthday party we had for one of our daughters was a scavenger hunt at the park.

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