Goodie bags gone wild

We went to a kid's birthday party earlier this month. Usually, my concern is on the amount of candies in the goodie bag. This time, however, there was no candy at all. In fact, there was no bags at all.

Ben got a cool Batman Power Key Playset, and Anya got a set Barbie. Definitely more costly than the birthday present we brought for the birthday boy.

What is really wrong with parentings these days? It took me a while to agree to move from "the original" goodie bags (candies and small party stuff) to things like matchbox, pencil holder, diary, and the likes.

Has the goodie bag standard increased? As ridiculous as it sounds, it scares me - the amount spent for things like this, or for kids in general. Education cost is perhaps the scariest.

A survey in the U.K. found that demand for goodie bag contents had risen 12-fold in the past three years.

Why do we need to give out goodie bags anyway? Why do kids need to get a goodie bag just for going to someone's party?

And then there are parents who just have to try to overdo others' goodie bags. The same survey quoted: "I think that children actually prefer the simple things. In the end, it's the parents that are making all these expensive choices."

Sigh...

By the way, Ben loved his Batman, though I had trouble assembling the toy. On the other hand, Anya didn't really like hers. We settled with a replacement from Toys 'R Us; Barbie will become our next birthday present.