To think kids' parties are a joke

Home bargains do a balloon arch kit for £5 you blow up and assemble the arch yourself. Buy a supermarket cake, they are just as good, or buy a plain supermarket cake and decorate it with some cool cake toppers from Amazon/Etsy. Having a party at home costs as much as you want to spend, if you are daft enough to pay £170 for someone to blow up balloons and put them into an arch for you then that’s on you.

My kids all have ‘at home parties’ at that age. I make chocolate cake or Victoria sponge plus a load of fairy cakes, we play pass the parcel and blow up a few balloons. Bit of musical statues, dance competition, sometimes craft or cake decorating and some very basic party bags. No entertainment apart from me bouncing around and hyping them up! 😂About £60 all in and they bloody love it.

Balloon arch and number stand for a kid’s party? 😂
£75 cake 😂😂😂😂

YABU to even entertain this

Also you can get those walking balloon animals on Amazon, my 5 year old loves them, I paid £10 for 20

Balloons and arches are often cheap and available on market place. X

Kids do not care about balloon arches! They want to play keepy uppy and hit each other with the balloons not admire them from afar!

You are choosing Instagram party items, so therefore yes thats the price of them. OTT for a kids party.

Pack of balloons and a couple of Colin the caterpillars - marks also do a nice rainbow cake, one of those and a Colin and sorted!

Where did all this begin??? Kids don't care...it's parents who think they have to have all this nonsense.

Y2 party for 10 kids. Hall is £12/hour, will buy a pile of balloons for them to play with, DH is running games, I’ll make a cake (£10 tops?) and but party food for another £50 or so. Under £100 all in I reckon!

I took my 6 year to a party last week. As we got there two children were refusing to go in and another was leaving. When I asked what the issue was I was told there was no balloon arch at the party.

I refused to believe this and poked my head in but to my dismay the rumours were true. There was also a Colin the Caterpillar cake (I assume Colin but given the terrible scene I've already described I wouldn't be surprised if it was a cheaper alternative) and not a hand made one. I felt faint with disgust. Needless to say we both left without explanation, went straight home and showered and I've told my child not to play with her's again.

£190 balloon arch for a 5 year olds birthday party 😂 Don't be daft. And as for wanting to make up for the lack of parties during lockdown, my now 16 and 18 year olds don't even remember their birthdays at that age

All i can say is thank fuck ds is 19 and grew up before balloon arches and £75 cakes for a 5 year old were a thing 🤣🤣. I never even spent that much on his 18th party!

The prices are not a joke. The people that pay them might be.

... the kids don't care about any of that. Just buy a cheap super market cake or two and buy a balloon arch off Amazon for £15 (it took me less than an hour to put mine together). Spend the money on hiring a hall, make sandwiches for everyone (£10 it cost me to make sandwiches for 50 people, and an hour of prep) throw toys on the ground and be done with it. I did my DDs for less than £100 for 50 people and a few people told me that it was one of the best they'd ever been to!

Sounds awful. I hope you at least took a party bag before you left

Find someone with a Costco card and get a couple of their celebration cakes. They're £15 each and are huge! Depending on how many children you have going, you make get away with just the one, they're very sweet so small pieces are fine.
Don't bother with a balloon arch. They're such a waste of money. The kids aren't fussed with them.

Your answer is in the OP:

I know these things can be done more basic but I'm wanting to make up for lockdown birthdays missed and make it as nice as poss

You and everyone's uncle.

I have a five year old and live in nappy valley London, so I'm not speaking from the lofty heights. A great party at home entails -

Bouncy castle in the garden (£80)
Popcorn, squash, cheese sandwiches, Party Rings, sausage rolls - £30?
Tea and coffee for adults
Cake - £25/30 for a good supermarket one

Or a smaller party with fewer kids doing party games, or taking 5/6 of their closest friends to soft play. All of these things are cheaper than what you're suggesting.

No child gives a shit about a balloon arch

It’s the parents paying for it that are the joke. Kids don’t give a shit about balloon arches or bespoke cakes they just want games snacks and fun with their friends.

Honestly,my mother is the queen of parties-she had me,my 3 brothers and 7 grandchildren so plenty of practise

Cake-supermarket offerings
Food-couple of sausage rolls,sandwiches,jelly and the token cucumber etc
Party bags-adsa do plastic tat but I went for a book each or one year my dad gave me plant cuttings for them to grow at home
Tea/coffee for the grown ups
Maybe a few balloons-balloon arches are a waste of money-they just want to get their mitts on them to play with
Few sweets for prizes/pass the parcel etc
Napkins are good for wrapping the cake for the bags

Her rules where 'tank em up on sugar and hand em back to the parents as they crash'

Best parties ever but not one cost more than £100 each

A 5 year old isn't bothered about the Insta bits-they just want sugar,fun and balloons in that order

Why would you need a balloon arch??

Get a Costco cake and do the balloon arch yourself. They're surprisingly easy to do.

A balloon arch in your own home for a 5 year old's party? Why? 😵‍💫

I got party bag toys on amazon 200 toys for £20. I then got a few different individually wrapped sweets. I was told they were the best party bags ever.

A friend of ine went to the works and got 10 books for £10. Every child got a book with a thank-you note inside. I thought that was better than loads of plastic crap.

I'd ditch the balloon arch and get some helium balloons. Card factory fill there ones with helium for free.

If you want a nice cake look on Marks and Spencer. I got a Costco one for £15 but thought is was rank. My daughter got chicken pox so her party was canceled and the cake was binned after one slice. Even the kids wouldn't eat it.

Drop the ballon set and save the "big cake" for the 16th / 18th birthday, at 5 they really don't give a toss for these things.