Without a big celebration in playrooms, restaurants and other catering facilities, celebrating a children’s birthday can hardly take place in Bosnia and Herzegovina in recent years. The worldwide trend of carefully planned birthday parties, which are organized months in advance, seems to have arrived in our country as well, with parents sparing no money when it comes to entertainment for their little ones.
– A few days ago, we wanted to organize a second birthday celebration for our daughter. I inquired a little bit from friends and acquaintances who had already organized it, how much the celebration cost them, and they said that it costs as the wedding, maybe a little less – says the Factor’s mother shocked by prices and the trend that has taken hold.
She adds that almost everyone in her area organizes celebrations that include a playroom or some restaurant, music or DJ, clown, costumes, special decorations, special cake and other cakes.
– Children are bought special suits and dresses, and often everything is a sign of a cartoon character. Both my husband and I initially thought we were having a little party, but realizing how much it was costing and not wanting to do too much, we decided it was best, as it used to be, to have a house party with a few friends and their children with cake and snacks – points out our interviewee.
They set aside several hundred BAM
In support of the fact that birthday celebrations have indeed become a trend, but also a lucrative business is the growing number of internet and Facebook sites that offer spaces, interesting decorations, services and food for children’s birthdays.
There are a large number of newly opened playrooms for children, and most restaurants also offer special arrangements and packages for celebrating children’s birthdays.
It is difficult to say exactly how much the celebration costs because packages are offered that differ from the number of children, the time period, additional facilities, but parents for the toddler’s entertainment must surely set aside at least several hundred BAM.
Sunnyland on Trebevic is a place parents often choose for their children’s birthdays, and a basic package for 20 children costs 280 BAM. When additional decorations, clowns, face painting are added, that figure could be around 800 BAM in a few hours. In Sarajevo Gepetto playroom the price of basic birthday package is between 370 BAM and 570 BAM, in Kinderland 255 BAM, while the celebration in the playrooms is slightly cheaper in other BiH cities.
However, parents often rent entire restaurants and other catering facilities, which costs a lot more, and they also order specially made cakes for which they give up to 150 BAM. Special balloons and decors, masks, clothing are bought, and individual parents donate bags of candy, chocolates and the like to everyone who came for their children’s birthday.
Carnivals …
Standard celebrations have been annoying to some, so lately parents are looking for extra facilities for their children to make their birthdays even more unusual and fun.
– We have been in this business for about 10 years and every year not only is the business expanding and there is a growing interest in birthdays, but there is interest in some things that were not there before. Previously there were interesting clowns, face painting, hats, and now more and more some things that exist abroad like ball for walking on water, carnival services etc. We are also interested in expanding our offer, and clients like this novelties – speaks for Factor Vanja Novak, from Partytimebh, a children’s animation agency.
The prices of their services vary by type of celebration, number of children and duration of the party.
-Our packages range from half an hour to two or three. Prices range from an average of 60 to several hundred BAM, and it all depends on the duration, the number of children, how many animators are needed and the like – says Novak, adding that parties are organized with children of all ages from 1 to 16.
Many international experts and psychologists believe that parents’ megalomaniacal birthday celebrations are more about proving and realizing themselves and their unfulfilled dreams, because the most important thing for them is to share photos of impeccably organized toddler birthdays on social networks to get the enviable reactions of others.
Psychologist, Gestalt and Integrative psychotherapist for children and adolescent, Sabina Zijadić-Husić points out that megalomaniacal celebrations of children’s birthdays could have a negative impact on children.
– Any activity where there is no good contact with the child can adversely affect the child. So it’s not really a question of how expensive or cheap a birthday celebration is, what matters most is how good a relationship is with a child. How much a children are all aware of the environment in which they are, contact with people, friendly relations with their friends, connection with their parents. If the celebration is not just for advertising purposes, it doesn’t matter how much it costs, because it can be very expensive and of high quality. However, if the lack of relationships is within that celebration, then it can be detrimental to children. If the goal is to celebrate a birthday for propaganda purposes, it will certainly hurt the child because the child is not a pet, it is a human being who needs love, attention, exchange first and foremost to see his or her value as a person, not value through gifts or the price of a birthday – believes Zijadić-Husić.
– Parents can celebrate their parenting as well, and if they want to share it with others, then it is not a problem, the problem is not the price, but the goal – Zijadić-Husić concludes.
(Hayat / Foto: Ilustracija)