13th birthday trip to Bluewater -Spending money

[Mumofgirls82]

Hello
im organising my daughters 13th birthday and she wants to go to Bluewater with her friends. What is the etiquette with spending money?
should I give all the girls a little to spend? I don’t want their parents to feel they have to give their kids money to go to a birthday? There will be between 2-4 friends coming. We
dont live close so I will drive them and supervise from a distance, but not get in the way/shop with them.
obviously lunch, treats drinks snacks etc etc I’ll buy.
Thankyou.

Personally I would frame it as you’re taking them to lunch at Bluewater for the birthday (ie you’re paying for that) and then you’ll supervise them exploring.

It would feel quite weird to me if another parent gave my child money to buy clothes, make up etc. (which is the sort of thing I would assume they want to look at). And for it to have any real purchasing power that would get expensive for you!!

How would your DD be buying stuff? Does she have money of her own e.g allowance, maybe some birthday money. I don’t think it would be okay for you to be buying just her stuff whilst out with friends either.

Full disclosure, I don’t have a teenager yet so my advice may in fact be rubbish 😅

I'd probs give them £20-30 spending money each, it still works out much cheaper than a party!

so my daughter would have her birthday money to spend at the shops that’s why I would feel bad if she had that and no one else had anything but I wouldn’t want the parents to feel like they had to give their kids money ti spend…equally I don’t want to make anyone feel weird for giving their kids money to spend?! Catch 22!! 🤯

I’m with first post. I would position it as a lunch that you are paying for. Then also inform the parents that they will browse the shops and they can decide to give them money or not. The lunch will be expensive enough for you i would imagine!

As a PP, I’d give them each £20-£30 to spend including their lunch.

I would think it very odd if another parent gave me child money to go shopping

What if there's nothing they want to buy, do they give it back at the end of do they throw away money on stuff they don't want

I agree with the party being taking them for lunch that happens to be at a shopping centre, surely no one would expect their child to be given spends

Surely in normal weekends when teenagers meet up in town and browse shops, they all have different amounts they can spend at that time. So this doesn’t need to be any different. It’s nice that they are getting treated to lunch.

It's quite common in my DDs circle of friends if they want to go to a shipping centre instead of having a party. They do all buy similar things like lip balms, bath bombs, soft toy, stuff from Claires or Kenji.