AIBU to spend less on presents for a joint children’s party?

YANBU

I wouldn’t be spending £40 for one party. Sorry.

I used to buy things in the sales/whenever I spotted anything reduced or in the middle aisle in Aldi/Lidl. You can definitely get something decent for around £5.
I used to buy a lot of orchard toys games though think 6 might be a bit too old for that now.
For girls home bargains is good for craft items. Or places like the works often do 3 for £12 which covers lots of different activity sets suitable for boys or girls. I have actually just checked and it's 4 for £20. There is a pouring art balloon dog set, marvel or stitch mould set, oi frog box set and puzzle, various water beads sets. All of these I would imagine a 6 year old enjoying.

Yeah we generally hit the Argos 2 for £15 hard for parties anyway. DD is going to a joint party tomorrow and I have spent less than I would if it was one very good friend (she's not really friends with one of the girls at all).

Do people really think about how much people have spent on their kids' party presents?!! That seems mad to me. And I definitely wouldn't be having any of that talk from my kids. You invite a friend because you want them to celebrate with you not because you want payment for the party.

Could you put £5 in each card, they are saving by sharing party 4 ways

The thing that annoys me about this thread is that if you posted ‘AIBU to be annoyed a parent gave my kid a cheap present’ you’d be crucified and rightly so.

Parties are expensive and I don’t judge any parent for cutting costs but that has to go both ways.

You can get decent gifts for £5 per child if you shop carefully, book, small craft and sweets for instance

I suppose what I would spend is irrelevant; you should spend what you can afford to.

What I did want to point out is that the Yorkshire trading company has galt science kits for £4.99 each. Maybe this could be an idea? They're normally £20. I'm unsure how much delivery is.

I think £5 each is fine if you head somewhere like Home Bargains/B&M. You could get some sort of squishy/fidget toy, a book and some sweets for £5 per child as well as 4 cards and a roll of wrapping paper for £20 total!

I held a joint party and we split the gifts. No child needs 30 gifts, it’s complete madness.

I used to buy a box set of books from the book people for a tenner. Everyone got a book. Maybe with a packet of sweets if I was feeling flush.
Same for party bags.

So did the kids all get three party bags?

Yes. I am shocked at the number of people on here who think all the kids should get a gift. We split boys and girls, my DD got 9 out of 30 and I couldn’t have cared less.

Joint party means joint gifts in my book. Worlds gone mad.

It's got nothing to do with the cost of the party! A birthday gift is for the child, not a reflection of the parents' outlay.

A small party at home, a class party at a soft play and a "take the children to a film and go to Pizza Express" all get the same sort of gift regardless of how much was spent.

If all four children are friends of you child, all four get a sensible present. If £10 is too much of a stretch, ok, maybe £8 a head on the grounds you don't have that much money to hand.

If they are not all friends of your child, a proper present for the friends and a token gift for the strangers/acquaintances.

The parents are definitely saving money, how can anyone see differently.

Why should attending kids’ parents still spend a fortune when their kid only gets to go to one party, get one lolly bag etc.

I would buy four small gifts or a fiver in each card.

I wouldn’t spend that much if it’s 4 way, a fiver is ample

if it was one person you would spend £10 max so this 4 way party is very expensive for the guests

I’ve got this coming up - a joint party of four boys. I won’t be spending £40, but equally don’t want the gifts to be cheap or not up to much. Am struggling for inspiration.

So is this a new thing, they used to be joint for 2 people not 4

I would normally spend about a tenner for a child. If DC was invited by one of the 4 children I would just get a present for the child they were invited by. If however, they are good friends with all 4 children and were invited by all 4 then I would probably have to reduce it to about 6 pounds per child as I just couldn't afford 40 quid all in one go. Im not clear whether each child invited say 10 friends each or whether the invites were sent out jointly by all 4. If they had individual parties would your DC have been invited to all four parties? I have twins and they always have joint parties but we make it clear on the invites which twin the invite has come from. I would never expect people to buy a present for both.

Very genuinely then, do you routinely buy presents for children in your class who either don’t have parties or who do but didn’t invite your child?

Because I don’t!