Party packs may soon be the number 1 cause of bankruptcy. Recently a friend encouraged me to patronise an old classmate who makes party packs. It seemed like nothing out of the ordinary until she added that “there are imported and local packs. For the foreign ones, you can specify the items you want and she will import them for you.” In shock, I asked “won’t that be expensive?”
Over the next few minutes, I was made to understand that party packs are now a fashion or social class statement in schools. No thanks to parents who kid themselves that they want to give their children the best or ensure that their children are not snubbed/ridiculed due to the poor state of their party pack. Actually, I think the parents just want others to know that they are a social force to reckon with or that their money just arrived; yes, the nouveau riche syndrome.
Children do not know if a party pack is of good or poor taste. All they see is a pack of pencil, pen, candy, books etc with more emphasis on the cool items. Your guess is as good as mine, the candy! They start opening the candy wrapper and the next thing, the parents takes it to check and comments on how cheap the candy looks, how the pencil is of poor quality etc. The parent then decides to make a statement with her child’s party pack; thank God his birthday is few weeks away! That’s how the competition begins; parents trying to outdo each other all in the name of “it’s for my kids.” Who are we kidding?
What happened to the good ol’ times of parents appreciating the fact that with gifts; it’s the thought that matters not how much it costs. Nowadays, you hear of party packs costing as low as N2,000. Yes, I said low because it is low compared to party gifts (not packs 
) of over N6,000 per child in the form of bicycles. Some tweens (ages 9-12) now have an adult birthday setting thanks to parents who select Chinese or Thai restaurants as the celebration venue with all the works that you would have at a 30th or even 50th birthday party (wink, subject to your budget). I have also heard of a case of a parent organizing a 10th birthday party sleep-over for a tween and her friends at a 4 or 5 star hotel.
Sincerely, let’s get a grip on our ego and at least admit we are doing it for ourselves and not our kids. People around us see it for what it truly is: an avenue to show off our social status. So, who are we kidding? Probably ourselves until our ATM card is held or rejected for lack of funds. Ding dong! aka reality check; you are now on the brink of bankruptcy due to outlandish party packs.
Now, who’s kidding who?
