Kids’ Birthday Parties: How Much is Too Much?

As a mother of five kids, I feel like half my life is spent attending or planning kids' birthday parties.

My children's birthdays are February, March, April, and May. While it seemed like a fun idea to have them born in this order I now find that from Valentine's Day on I have a birthday to celebrate almost every other week...whoops.

To help offset the cost we've decided that only one kid a year gets a "big" party. This means a party where they have more than just a few friends over for a sleepover. In the past, we've had parties at a movie theater, invited princesses and superheroes to come over, and had cake and pizza at the bowling ally. Nothing major but, it still puts a dent in our pocketbook.

As I was scrolling through Instagram I came across some pics from another parents birthday party and I was instantly struck with mom guilt. There was a perfectly coordinated color scheme, gorgeous banners, a table setting that was Pinterest perfect and fancy balloons and overstuffed goody bags for each child. And this was NOT a celebrity feed. Just glancing at the pics I could tell that they probably spent more on this party than I had on my wedding...

It prompted me to do a little digging and see how much the average parent spends on their kids' birthday parties.

According to this article, the average amount a parent spends on a birthday party for their child is $500 (this doesn't include gifts). Several parents said that they regularly spend between $1,000 and $2,000 dollars!

Just doing a rough tally I was at about $250 for my daughter's birthday this last week, this includes her princess party at preschool and all the food for the family party. I make their cakes from scratch which saves me between $25-$100 depending on how elaborate of a cake you want.

Sound off Wyoming, how much do YOU think is the right about to spend on your kids' birthday party?