to not understand the point of helium balloons for celebrations?

[Olifin]

Waste of money? Waste of resources? Pointless?

What say you?

I love them! Bite a small hole in them, inhale and then sing "Follow The Yellow Brick Road" and other Munchkin based songs

Can't we just send someone to the sun and get some more?? Won't someone think of the balloons for christs sake??

Good for kids, rubbish for weddings.

Had no idea helium was a limited resource though.

Sorry .... I have 6 Helium Balloons in my lounge as we speak - it was an inspired (or so I thought) gift from DD to DS ...

Just never thought (or knew) that Helium was a 'scarce' resource - after all, Maccy D's seem to hand out helium-like ballloons ...

I will invent something to replace them with forthwith.

I dont think it is a limited resource. I could say "oh noes! There is a limited amount of hair on the planet!!!!! Don't get your hair cut FGS"

Doesn't make it true. I can't understand how it can be limited if it's produced by radioactive decay?

I think they are just vulgar vulgar vulgar with their garish foil backs. What's wrong with normal balloons ?

Helium is limited because when it is released into the atmosphere it is so light that it floats off into space so the amount in the atmosphere is tiny. It is extracted from natural gas, so will be difficult to get hold of once that runs out. While it is made by radioactive decay that is probably a slow process and in rock, so it would be hard to get the helium from this process. It is effectively a non-renewable resource. I still like balloons though. We could use helium instead and rather than breathing it in for fun we could burn them which would be even more interesting.

I don't really understand that either Shirley

I did think about the conservationist angle when I wrote the OP but, TBH, the pointlessness of said balloons was at the forefront of my mind. My ILs always buy them for the kids on birthdays. And the kids fight over them and then someone lets it outside by mistake and all hell breaks loose. And what happens to the shiny wrapper once it's gone up into space?

I fail to see how they could cheer someone up in hospital. I'd be irritated if that were me but each to their own.

When I had a newborn baby and I was sitting around crying and wondering if I'd ruined my life; the two things that made that feeling worse were the farking helium balloons bobbing around and bunches of flowers looking cheerful all around the place. Why would someone with a newborn baby need helium balloons and flowers? What about buying/doing something useful? Or just not bothering.

Op - sorry, but the balloons have kept my 4yo busy - but I agree that balloons do have an age-limit and I wouldn't be too charmed receiving one as a gift now, but some helium (and some plastic pointlessness0 has given me an hour's break ...

Haha oli!

I did hesitate before ordering said balloons, but I wanted my friend to know we were thinking of her, and that we loved her. No flowers in wards anymore, too I'll to eat choccies or sweets, fruit baskets were just...ick.

So the balloons it was. I did have them personalised with "stop malingering you attention seeking cunt"

Not really, but I so wanted to.

Er too ill to eat chocs. Obv

Didn't know there was a shortage of it, but once the balloon is finished/popped wouldn't all that helium be released back out into the atmosphere anyway?? so how is it using them up?

As far as I can tell from my Googling - the helium for balloons comes from underground (where it's bonded somehow to something else, gas?), in other words, trapped underground.
When it is released into the atmosphere, it basically floats away into space.

Can't they just catch some more?

I might be really thick but didn't really think about where helium came From suppose I thought it was man made

oh my heart just stopped when I saw 'to not see the point of helium balloons'. Then I read on.

Wondered WTF I'd done

As you were.

So all the helium's going to run out? Should I be panic buying?

Well, if competitive party syndrome keeps going, we will run out sooner than 25 years.

finally Im scared shitless of normal balloons and cant be in the same room as one (they might burst). Im OK with helium foil ones so getting DD and DS one of these each every so often is a compromise. So thats whats wrong with normal balloons.

Then again I dont see the point in any balloons at all. What purpose do they have?

Interesting about Helium though running out. I didnt think of that.

there is no point to celebrations. They are a waste of resources.

There's not supposed to be a point.

When we run out of fossil fuels we can burn miserable people instead. A limitless supply.

I didn't know the helium is going to run out .