The venue where they are having their party does provide ready done ones at the very reasonable price of £1.80 each. I have shunned these though as they can’t actually tell me what’s in them so I reckon they’ll be rather naff. However, what to do instead? Do you go for quality, quantity, novelty or even charity?

Some of the options

1) Check out The Works or The Book People and buy book collections and individually wrap one book for each child (looks like you can get decent books for £1 each) and then supplement with a bag of Haribo. However, as one Mumsnetter put it: “My kids like books they like parties they like party bags they don’t like them mixing.”

2) Go for a pre-made option from a company that specialises in doing them. It’s a sliding scale with the cheapest looking rather sparse and the good ones really starting to get pricey

3) The DIY bag packed full of cheap tat and penny sweets – loved by children, hated by parents

4) The more novel such as a plant pot and packet of seeds each for party guests to plant at home       

5) Use the money I’d spend on doing something as trivial as party bags to help Syrian refugees instead. At four, I’m not sure if the kids would understand this.

Read: Planning a Child’s Birthday Party 

The post Party Bags: Quality, Quantity, Novelty or Charity? appeared first on The Parent Social.

Penis Beaker (maybe)

I have to say, I feel sorry for Sara Crewe aka ‘penis beaker lady’ to an extent. People take to sites such as Mumsnet to discuss many different personal topics and overwhelmingly to seek reassurance. The poor woman and – let’s not forget – her poor husband are now being judged for having slightly unusual post-coital behaviour and are being completely ridiculed. Sara posted about their dedicated post-sex cleanup area on their bedside table. This included: a box of tissues, a small bin and a beaker of clean water for temporary cleaning/dunking while she’s in the bathroom.

I personally think people (myself included) now share too much with too many.  Mumsnet is a forum perfect for asking questions about your child’s sleeping, eating, behaviour etc and to gather others’ opinions about the best way to deal with a particular issue being experienced. Such sites are also great for having a bit of a chat: that’s the point of them. However, to get the general consensus on whether something constitutes ‘normal’ bedroom behaviour is taking it too far in my opinion. Isn’t that what best friends are for? Perhaps not…

In my mind Sara did share too much – the thread itself was titled: Do you dunk your penis? However, in her defence, never in her wildest dreams could she have imagined that the thread would go viral and that national newspapers would be running stories on it. 

The post Seeking reassurance, sharing too much and penis beaker appeared first on The Parent Social.