The Case Against Goodie Bags: Simplifying Kids’ Birthday Parties

I’m officially done doing goodie bags for kids birthday parties. Now, hear me out. I’m not trying to take the fun away from kids birthday parties, but birthday parties are a lot of work to plan, no matter how simple you try to keep them. And there’s so much to keep track of between the food and the gifts and the decorations and invitation, the whole nine. Right? There is a lot of work that goes into birthday parties. And then you also need to do goody bags. And the hard thing about goody bags, right, is that you wanna do something that the parents want the kids to have, but the kids are excited to get. And that’s really hard to do. And I know as a parent. We have a drawer in our house full of things that just come from goodie bags. It’s slinkies and tattoos and stickers and pens that break in four seconds. And little, tiny, little notebooks and Chapstick. And this stuff sits in this drawer and it piles up really high until I get to the point where I throw it out loud and my kids are gonna use it for maybe five seconds on the car ride home, and then it’s gone. And to be honest, a lot of times there’s candy in there. They’ve already had cake and ice cream and pizza, and we don’t need more candy, right? We don’t need more sugar. They’re already going crazy. And so for My sake, to keep it more simplified. I am not doing goodie bags because I know the parents don’t really enjoy getting them, the kids don’t really need them, and it’s just more work. And so I’ve decided I am done doing goodie bags. I will do some sort of favor, but goodie bags are just not it for us. I’d love to hear what you’re thinking. Are you doing goodie bags? Have you stopped doing goodie bags? Do you like getting goodie bags? What’s the vibe?