Parental rip offs

When you become a parent you also need to be prepared to be ripped off over and over again.

My pet hate is the price of balloons and associated plastic merchandise you see at family theatre performances or events.

This just really makes me cross. You will find balloons and rubbish plastic toys at every show you ever take your children to. These items will be forced upon you at every opportunity. Before the show, during the interval, as you head to the toilet or drink stall, and even more so after the show.

It is not enough that you have paid a fortune for your tickets, and bought overpriced drinks and ice creams but you then feel compelled to purchase other things as well.

Can you say no to your children and walk away? Of course you can and I frequently do. Should  you always have to? No you shouldn’t.

Not getting everything they want all of the time is an important lesson for children and one I like to teach.

However, if they have been good and not had a treat for a while, I should be able to get all four of them a balloon without it costing £40 …. yes I said £40 …..

Now, I have never and would never pay that for for 4 balloons. At that price I am afraid  the answer is always no, but I see other parents doing that all the time so these shows can continue to charge obscene prices for a bit of shiny foil full of helium with your child’s favourite character on.

Parental Rip Off - Peppa Pig foil baloon

The accompanying plastic toys that are also for sale are even worse. £7.50 for a flashing Peppa Pig that is broken by the time you reach the car? I think not!

What are you worst parental rip offs?

Let's Talk Mommy

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28 comments

    1. Awful isn't it … as much as you should not always say yes sometimes you want to get something but it is such a waste of money. I have started saying they can choose something else instead that won't fall apart!

  1. I think parents are ripped off at every turn, my daughter is obsessed with lelli kelli shoes, she is never getting some at up to £80 for kids shoes, it is a joke!

  2. We are going to see Octonauts live on Sunday and I’m already dreading the merchandise stall. Especially when you can buy a balloon in ASDA for £2.50! We’re going to Disneyland Paris in the summer and I’m going to stock up on Disney crap from the supermarket before we go – I hate being ripped off!

    I enjoyed your post. #brilliantblogposts

  3. I had to click through when I saw the helium balloon! This too has been my biggest rip off as a parent. We went to see The Wiggles and the balloon was £12. However I did purchase it as my brother looked scarily like the yellow wiggle and we tied it to his chair at his wedding, so it had it’s uses. These places absolutely feed into our ‘avoid the tantrum – other parents are doing so I will look horrible if I don’t’ neurosis. I have to learn to be stronger!!

  4. Off topic, but love the new layout of the blog. So much easier to read as I struggled with the old one. It looks fab hunny!!! Back to your amazing post so true and I am a tight wad when it comes to these and never buy my kids them because I know like you said it will be broke in no time. I hate when they put them at the counter so kids scream for them while you wait to pay. lol Great post. Thanks for linking up to Share With Me. Happy Easter! #sharewithme

  5. haha – I have not got to the stage where we will be taking the kids out to shows yet, but we used to live in Thailand and there, the breakable plastic crap is only about 50p. THe grandparents bought our (1-year-olds) angry bird klaxons (deceased), whistles on string (deceased), bumping and grinding singing cars set to music (deceased), Chinese monkey drums (deceased)… you get my point. It is all deceased. 🙁

  6. You are so interesting! I don’t think I’ve truly read through something like that before. So great to find somebody with some unique thoughts on this subject. Really.. many thanks for starting this up. This website is one thing that’s needed on the internet, someone with some originality!|

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