{"id":7332,"date":"2015-08-05T04:46:25","date_gmt":"2015-08-05T11:46:25","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/add-vodka.com\/?p=7332"},"modified":"2015-07-17T10:50:13","modified_gmt":"2015-07-17T17:50:13","slug":"the-cost-of-outgrowing-birthday-parties","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/add-vodka.com\/the-cost-of-outgrowing-birthday-parties\/","title":{"rendered":"The Cost of Outgrowing Birthday Parties"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><!--- Start Required Personal Finance Syndication Network Raw HTML ---><\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-7334\" src=\"http:\/\/add-vodka.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/07\/birthday-party-manners-600.jpg\" alt=\"birthday parties\" width=\"600\" height=\"398\" srcset=\"https:\/\/add-vodka.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/07\/birthday-party-manners-600.jpg 600w, https:\/\/add-vodka.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/07\/birthday-party-manners-600-300x199.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 600px) 100vw, 600px\" \/>Every parent knows the financial hazards of planning a birthday party for their child. Planning birthday parties is an industry among many that pull parents into a major expense that they otherwise might not be part of \u2014 at least not voluntarily.<\/p>\n<p>If you\u2019ve escaped the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.therichest.com\/expensive-lifestyle\/money\/rich-babies-top-10-celebrity-baby-birthday-parties\/\" target=\"_blank\">high cost of birthday parties<\/a> for your own child, chances are you\u2019ve seen it at birthday parties you\u2019ve taken your kid to for their friends.<\/p>\n<p>You know the ones. Whether\u2019s Chuck E Cheese and the chaos that happens when screaming children are pared with soda, lousy pizza and game tokens, or another manufactured playdate at a facility that will set up, put on and clean up after, these <a href=\"http:\/\/famousparenting.com\/party-planning-tips-for-birthdays-and-graduation\/\" target=\"_blank\">birthday<\/a> parties can easily run a few hundred dollars.<span id=\"more-1428\"><\/span><\/p>\n<p>Our <a href=\"http:\/\/www.cashsmarter.com\/what-i-want-to-give-my-daughter-for-fathers-day\/\" target=\"_blank\">daughter<\/a> is nearing her 11th birthday, and we\u2019ve held most of her birthday parties at our house or a nearby park. We\u2019re lucky because her birthday is during the summer, when it\u2019s easier to have an outdoor party.<\/p>\n<p>These have been fairly inexpensive birthday parties, the kind of old-fashioned one parents have been hosting forever: Games, cake, food and a BBQ and drinks for any parents who wanted to stay for the event. Everyone has fun.<!--more--><\/p>\n<p>The problem with hosting a birthday party, of course, is all of the legwork and planning that goes into it. There\u2019s food and decorations to buy and set up, a house and yard to clean, and afterward everything has to be cleaned up.<\/p>\n<p>Paying an amusement center $400 or so to host the party and take care of cleanup can be worth the cost. That\u2019s a great option if you can afford it.<\/p>\n<h2>Another option<\/h2>\n<p>The past few years we\u2019ve offered our daughter the option of either having a birthday party with a bunch of her friends, or taking a few friends on an outing where they\u2019ll get to do a lot more than have cake, lunch and open presents after playing some party games.<\/p>\n<p>She\u2019s always chosen the party option \u2014 partly because it\u2019s a lot of fun to have all of your friends over for a party \u2014 but also because, I think, because 12 presents are better than two.<\/p>\n<p>This year she\u2019s taking us up on the \u201cday out with a few friends\u201d option. I don\u2019t necessarily think this choice means she\u2019s growing out of birthday parties at home, but that she realizes the chance to try something new is worth taking.<\/p>\n<p>What are we doing? Taking her and two friends to an amusement park for a day, and spending the previous night at a nearby hotel so we can get to the park as soon as it opens on the morning of her birthday. The park is a bit of a drive from our home, and while a hotel stay isn\u2019t necessary, we hope it adds to the fun of the celebration and will make the trip easier.<\/p>\n<p>The cost will be much more than we\u2019ve ever spent before on one of her birthday parties. But that doesn\u2019t bother me \u2014 too much.<\/p>\n<h2>Outgrowing birthday parties<\/h2>\n<p>What hits me harder is that my girl may be outgrowing birthday parties where I\u2019m allowed. The cost is going up, but I never expected her to want to have birthday parties at home every year, no matter how <a href=\"http:\/\/add-vodka.com\/how-my-kid-avoids-daycare-with-a-cheap-summer\/\" target=\"_blank\">inexpensive<\/a> they were when compared to going out for the day.<\/p>\n<p>Her growing out of birthday parties may not be happening anyway. Next year, she may want to have one in our back yard. Or she might want to just go out with some friends to lunch and a movie.<\/p>\n<p>However she celebrates another year of birth \u2014 no matter what her age \u2014 I hope to be there in some way. It can be a dinner out at her favorite restaurant (Old Spaghetti Factory for now) or at home with a BBQ, or some other idea we haven\u2019t thought of yet.<\/p>\n<p>Whatever it is, it\u2019s an expense that any parent is happy to have if it makes their kid happy. Unconditional love doesn\u2019t have a price \u2014 except for maybe a small piece of birthday cake.<\/p>\n<p><i>This article by Aaron Crowe first appeared on <a href=\"http:\/\/www.cashsmarter.com\/the-cost-of-outgrowing-birthday-parties\/\">CashSmarter.com<\/a> and was distributed by the <a href=\"http:\/\/PFSyn.com\">Personal Finance Syndication Network<\/a>.<\/i><\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/feeds.feedburner.com\/~r\/pfsyn\/~4\/9KgNZwdKpPs\" alt=\"\" width=\"1\" height=\"1\" \/><br \/>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/pfsyn.com\/1428\/the-cost-of-outgrowing-birthday-parties\">Source<\/a><\/p>\n<p><!--- End Required Personal Finance Syndication Network Raw HTML ---><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Every parent knows the financial hazards of planning a birthday party for their child. Planning birthday parties is an industry among many that pull parents into a major expense that they otherwise might not be part of \u2014 at least not voluntarily. If you\u2019ve escaped the high cost of birthday parties for your own child, &hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":18,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[289,231],"tags":[296,293,297],"class_list":["post-7332","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-children","category-money-2","tag-birthday","tag-children","tag-party"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v22.7 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>The Cost of Outgrowing Birthday Parties<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Outgrowing birthday parties can be difficult for a child and parent, who often want to celebrate with as many people as possible in a traditional way.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" 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