How much of these things do you consider a treat?

[LajesticVantrashell]

Person A has done/given/bought her DC the following this weekend. Person B thinks this is excessive and that they're all treats which should be given rarely and sporadically.

1. McDonald's
2. Soft play
3. Swimming
4. A new book
5. A small bag of jelly sweets
6. A magazine

This is in between an afternoon in the park, a walk up a hill and some down time playing at home.

How often do your DCs do/have the above?

Normal weekend stuff for us

I'd also hope person a has a decent pension, 3 months of savings and a paid off car.

If you have the money to do that then it is your choice. However, i think its a very materialistic weekend. What is that teaching the kids? What about being bored? Creating their own entertainment?

Sounds like a fairly standard weekend where we’re going out tbh. Not over the top.

So if we did all of that in a weekend as a family (assuming 2 adults, 1 4yo dc) it would probably cost about

€22.50 McDonalds
€15.70 Soft Play
€19.50 Swimming
€7 book
10c sweets
€4 magazine

So in total nearly €70, which is about £60! That is expensive to do every week in my book. I am not saying it's a lot of money for having done lots of activities, as nothing on there is a huge amount by itself, but there is a difference between reasonable and affordable, and the latter will vary hugely depending on what your income is.

I think we need to have a definition of the word treat.

Why on earth do people say things like "I try not to describe sweets as a treat"? I mean, what the fuck else are they?

How the hell are 2 adults and 1 4 year old spending 22.50 in McDonald's? 😱

Also not in the uk... for us it would cost
McDonald’s- two happy meals €9 and if you add adults meals then over €20
Swimming for the 4 of us is approx €20 also
A book could be anywhere from €5 -€20 depending on where you shop
Soft play is about €5 per child

@DesLynamsMoustache where do you live? that’s incredibly cheap. our cheapest softplay is £6 for the child, £2 for the adult. most are around £10 per child, £6 per adult.
its cheaper if you go after 5pm, but they close at 6pm.
pool is £6 per adult, £4 per child (not very exciting council pool)

We’re in the midlands and soft play is about £3 per child. Don’t pay for adults.

I’m intrigued as to why these soft plays are charging for the adults!!! It’s not like they go and play ffs!!!

Meal costs €9, happy meal costs €4.50.

I did say we're not in the UK :o

Scotland. They don't charge for adults here in any of the soft plays, and we go to three pretty big ones regularly. The most expensive one is £6 for a child but no cost for adults, the other two are £4 and £4.75, again no cost for adults.

I don't consider any of them a real treat.
McDonalds is certainly no treat is dam right awful.
Swimming is a weekend activity.
All very normal to me

At primary age, mine is a teenager now.

1. McDonald's - rarely
2. Soft play - rainy day holiday treat
3. Swimming - weekly
4. A new book - several weekly from library, new for birthdays and Christmas
5. A small bag of jelly sweets - at birthday parties, he had pudding at home but I didn't usually buy sweets
6. A magazine - never

This is in between an afternoon in the park, a walk up a hill and some down time playing at home. - every weekend and many days after school

Our local soft play would be £25 on a sat.

This is for two adults and two kids age 8&5

Two magazines £9
Two books £15
Mc Donald's £25
Swimming £20
Sweets £2

So closer to £90 than £100. Still a lot of money. Yes you can get soft play for £2 on a term time Tuesday if your under 6 months but other than that!!

I find it really weird soft plays charging for adults Don't think anyone here would go if that was the case

@BertieBotts I think we are in the same country

Does your SIL have children OP? My SIL’s have endless opinions and advice about children. Neither have children.

I know, it's a right rip off IMO!! Our soft play is rubbish and it's €7.90 for the kids and €3.90 (!!!!!!!!) for adults. There is NOTHING for adults to do. And they charge on top of that for food and drinks and have horrible pick and mix that the children beg you for constantly and sell little tokens that they can put into rides, cars and arcade machines so they beg you for tokens constantly as well. We only ever go there for birthday parties. I miss the cheap and cheerful germ infested pits of UK soft play. Not that this one is any cleaner.

Haha, yes, probably :D

To be fair lots and lots of things are much much cheaper here. So we should probably have spare money for €20 soft play :o

All treats. Agree that reading is essential but what's wrong with the library? I buy my kids books but they know it's a treat to have a new one. Swimming lessons essential but splashing about= fun/ treat.

Obviously if you've got four kids it's going to be more expensive, everything is. But if you've got one child I don't think it's that expensive for a weekend of keeping them entertained, really. I spend double that on an evening out with friends.

But obviously it's entirely to do with your disposable income. If you have 2k a month disposable then it's not much money. If you have £200 a month disposable, then it's totally different.

Sadly my kids don't like maccy ds

1. McDonald's - when we are in a rush and nothing else near, so once a month probably.

1. Soft play - once a month when a friend sleeps or if it's half term and I need to work from home we go there and I pretend I'm at home.

1. Swimming - life skill

1. A new book - library or book at the big shop so maybe twice a month

1. A small bag of jelly sweets - rarely

1. A magazine - once every two months

Oh gosh! That’s a boring lazy weekend for us! We might just do those things on a rainy Sunday (though probably a yo sushi, nandos or Subway rather than Mac Donald’s) but we would definitely go somewhere better on the Saturday, like a theme park or museum, maybe in to London (we are midlands) we always have a BIG weekend as we both work full time and cherish the time we do have together.

I fucking love that ^^ post!