Childrens parties - How much do you spend on their playmates?

[princessosyth]

When I was younger way back in the 70's, I can remember that you just took a token present to school friends parties and you didn't spend a lot of money.

Last year when it was ds's 3rd birthday I was shocked to see how much money people had spent on him. Some of the parents of his nursery friends had spent over £15! and they hardly even knew ds.

We went to a party recently and I bought some very nice pressies which cost £4, when I was chatting to my sister I was telling her that ds had been rather taken with the presents that we had bought and we had to buy an extra one for him and my sister asked how much the presents cost, when I told her she seemed a little surprised and she said that these days it is customary to spend around £8-£10. Is this the norm? Do I/ds look like complete skinflints?

Approx £5 for class mates, a bit more for children we know better.

I spent between £5 and £10 on classmates, up to £15 for a special friend. Seems to be about the norm round here. (quite affluent area, non of the classmates living solely on benefits AFAIK.)

Having said that, I have sometimes recycled duplicate presents received by DS, and spotted that a few of DS latest presents were definitely recycled. Like new, but outer wrapper not on box for example.

But it's not about the money is it? It's about giving them something nice and making a nice party on the day. I owuld hate that people spent more than they really want to for DS who already has -too- -many- plenty of -junk- toys.