It's a Toddler's Party. How About a $75,000 Budget? In Los Angeles, children's birthday celebrations

[BlueWaveNeverEnd]

It’s a Toddler’s Party. How About a $75,000 Budget?
In Los Angeles, children’s birthday celebrations have spiraled into mini-weddings.

One hundred people RSVP’d for William’s sixth birthday party, which was held at a Los Angeles park on a March afternoon. By 12:30 p.m., the fire station-themed event was in full swing, with energetic attendees trying on their own fire-hose backpacks and gleefully coasting down slides into a large custom ball pit, detailed with flames and the slogan “Let’s Get Fired Up.”

Preparation for the event had begun three months before when Sabrina Maldonado and Melissa Mueller of Stay Golden Design began working with William’s mother and 14 vendors to hammer out all the details.

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The ratcheting-up of expectations may have something to do with the pandemic. Parents were pent up for two years and emerged wanting to go big for their children’s milestones.

Then, of course, there’s Instagram. “Social media’s just doing the job of the school gossip,” said Joshua Castillo, a parenting consultant in Los Angeles. “There’s always been social media, it just used to be a person who found out how much something cost, maybe took a picture, and showed you the goody bag from the party.”

And it’s impossible to ignore the influence of the Kardashians, whose events introduced new standards for what it means to celebrate. “Around the time Kim had a party for her first child, and it was something that was featured in People Magazine, something shifted,” Ms. Zelken said. (“KidChella,” as that party was called, featured a Ferris wheel and an ill-advised American Indian headdress). “People had this drive to get to that same level, or close to it.”

At William’s 6th birthday party, a real fire truck showed up later.Credit...Alyssa Hunter Photography








https://www.nytimes.com/2023/04/13/style/la-children-parties.html

[Faux pas]

1. Kickin' with Disgust

there are kids in America who are starving.

[gay texan]

2. You know

I got a Betty Crocker cake and presents back in the day.

[BlueWaveNeverEnd]

4. Betty Crocker cake frosted from a can. wax candle stuck in

[gay texan]

5. and those times were awesome!!!

They were everything

[NBachers]

7. I got a Betty Crocker oven with light bulb inside to bake; cake & brownie mix. I baked my own cake!

I cut a slice off for my dad to try, and he said, "Hey, that's pretty good!"

[BlueWaveNeverEnd]

9. cooking with a light bulb... I had one of those ovens. Imagine giving a kid access to heat

lol

[Retrograde]

14. My father worked for General Mills

part of his job entailed making cakes from their mixes and then analyzing them to make sure their contents matched what was printed on the boxes. He used to smuggle cakes home for our birthdays: they usually had a core sample taken out of them that was covered up with icing.

For his own birthday he insisted on a pie.

[Joinfortmill]

3. This isn't for the child, that's for damn sure.

[BlueWaveNeverEnd]

10. agreed.

[Wonder Why]

6. But when the parents are old and gray, they'll donate half their billions to

Harvard and get a school there named after them. The remainder they will pass on to their 2 y/o so he/she will have a good start in life as a Republican presidential candidate.

[Karadeniz]

8. Grooming children into shallow materialistic adults.

[BigmanPigman]

11. Wow, does this only happen in LA? Amazing that it isn't done

in other areas of the US. Why is it only in LA? Or is this the usual objective journalism from the NYT.

[LisaM]

12. How is a sixth birthday a "milestone"? Of what?

I see the most mundane things treated as some sort of victory now. Pre -school "graduation". Middle school "graduation". The list goes on and on. I know parents who treat their privileged kids very well, give them way more than they need and then claim to be 'honored to be this kid's parent' (and that is an exact quote). I don't get it.

[TeamProg]

13. Truly obscene. nt