Goodie bags

I have moved past the piggy flu and now I will rant about goodie bags. I know, you're like, seriously, she's got to have more to worry about. The earthquake in Haiti, the rapes in the Congo, the bombs in Iraq. Yes, there are worse problems than goodie bags, but I must deal with the here and now, so here we go.

I don't mean to insult any of my friends who like to give out goodie bags at their children's parties. If I lose any friends over this blog, then so be it. The thing is, my son goes to a birthday party, then comes back with a plastic bag filled with plastic objects made in China that will then go into the landfill. And in our house, I can tell you that they get to the landfill pretty darn quickly, as I toss them into the garbage the second Noah looks the other way. He never misses the stuff.

Two weeks ago was Noah's 6th birthday. We had the obligatory large party, where all the children brought lovely gifts. At the end of the party, we chose to give each child a book rather than the aformentioned goodie bag. I didn't know all the children personally, so many of the kids got Danny and the Dinosaur or Amelia Bedelia. However, I do know some of these kids well and bought the Statue of Libery book for the kid obsessed with the Lady, a baseball book for the kids obsessed with baseball, and a more advanced reading book for the slightly older child who attended the party. I don't know why I was shocked at the disappointment some of the kids had when I handed them the wrapped books. "This is it?" I got that from 2 kids. They were truly shocked and bummed out.

Noah has been to 2 parties this year where the invitations said, "no gifts". In lieu of gifts, the parents were collecting for a charity in the child's name. This is such a terrific idea and I wish more of us would do this. We did this last year, and Noah didn't miss out on anything. We got him plenty of wonderful gifts, and he collected over $400 for Heifer International. I wish more people would do this, and while they're at it, skip the goodie bags all together. We gave him the option of doing that again this year, but he opted for gifts rather than a donation. Okay, he's 6, and I understand his choice. Next year I don't know that I will give him the choice.