Party Panic - The Madness Of Organizing Children's Birthday Parties

Live exotic animals in your living room, Giant Scalextric set up in your garden, a double-decker bus equipped with bouncy castles, or a huge silver truck containing the UK's only 8 driver racing-car simulator parked on your drive: These are just some of the options available if you're planning your child's next birthday party. Has the World gone mad, or am I just hopelessly out-of-touch?

If, like me, you're of the opinion that putting up some bunting and having a few friends over for jelly and ice-cream and a run around the garden makes for a perfectly good children's party, then you'll be horrified to read some recent statistics: According to a survey on party spending by Smile.co.uk internet bank, over half of the 3,500 parents who took part admitted that 'they plan to or have spent' up to £500 on their child's fifth birthday party (apparently the worst offending anniversary in terms of extravagance).

This is, however, nowhere near the staggering £10,000 the Beckhams reportedly lavished on Brooklyn's fifth, inviting friends to a large marquee in their garden equipped with entertainers, a DJ, and magic show. And then there's the £20,000 Willy Wonka style affair organised by Quintessentially Events earlier this year for a seven-year-old in Gloucester, whose guests were invited by tickets hidden inside chocolate bars to a glorious spectacle of dancing Oompa-Loompas, a giant gob-stopper pond, miniature bumper-car track, carousel, circus games, and three different chocolate fountains. I'll take your Willy Wonka party and raise you £30,000 - yes, apparently it's not unheard of for competitive parents to spend £50,000 on their little darling's special day. No wonder Kate Middleton's parents became millionaires from their children's party props and costumes business!

In the US, this trend of one-upmanship is becoming so out of hand that fed-up parents have launched a campaign called Birthdays Without Pressure, asking people to call a halt to the whole thing. And who can blame them, with reports of a wealthy New York father throwing a $10 million party for his 13-year-old daughter's birthday party, including hiring the band Aerosmith and giving out $10,000 worth of gift bags?

But it's not just the spiraling cost of parties that are worrying us Brits; a recent study of just under 1,000 parents in the UK carried out by online party experts https://www.Partydelights.co.uk found that 100 percent of parents admitted feeling stressed about their children's first birthday. Selina, a mother of two from Wiltshire says she felt enormous pressure to make sure everything was perfect for her son's first party. "I remember staying up until 2 o'clock in the morning making beautiful hand-stitched party bags, and embroidering each one with the individual guests' names. I never made that mistake again! You learn when you've done a few more parties."

But, whether you give in to the pressure and organise a huge event with entertainers and themed activities or not, these days there are a number of unwritten rules at any children's gathering that few of us dare to ignore. Take the issue of food, for example. Gone are the days when a few jam sandwiches, a bowl of twiglets, and some Wagon Wheels would do the trick: Now, it's all been "Jamie Oliver". According to Partydelights, the top three foods served at parties these days are birthday cake

(95 per cent), crisps (88 per cent), and cheese (82 per cent), with much of the traditional fare being replaced with healthier low-sugar and low-salt options, like wholemeal bread, fruit juice, white meat, and fresh fruit and vegetables such as carrot sticks, cherry tomatoes and corn on the cob. But, if you're planning to come up with some new menu ideas of your own, be careful! Anthony Worrall Thomson did just that last year, with his recipe for "Snickers pie" (five Snickers bars combined with mascarpone, eggs, sugar, soft cheese and puff pastry; the fat equivalent of three deep-fried Mars bars). According to an article in The Scotsman, it was highly criticised by a leading nutritionist who said that one Snickers pie in a lifetime would be enough, while another top chef labelled it "awful".

Perhaps he should have stuck to birthday cake, which as the number one favourite children's party food, remains the piece de résistance with which we're most likely to want to impress. Another word of warning, though: Once you get a penchant for the perfect cake, it's a difficult habit to break. Anne, a busy GP and mum from Wiltshire started Childrens Cakes Dublin for her children's birthday parties as a challenge to herself, having never really baked before. She borrowed a book from her local library and asked her children to decide which cake they'd like - a decision she's come to regret. She says; "With the girls now choosing more and more elaborate recipes, and their birthdays only five weeks apart, it can sometimes feel like all I'm doing for weeks on end is making cakes!" Going to great lengths to get the perfect cake doesn't always have to mean spending hours in the kitchen, however. Take the example of Joanna Bowden, editor of LittleTimes. She admits to travelling from her home in Devon to Choccywoccydoodle in London each year to buy her daughter's birthday cake - a guilty pleasure she tells me she intends to give up. I'm not sure I believe you, Joanna!