The cost of a child's birthday party.

How much is too much to spend on a child's birthday party?

When I grew up it was all very simple. 
You wore your best party frock (always that my mum had made).  Invited a few friends over.
You played games like musical chairs, dead lions, pin the tail on the donkey and of course the chocolate bar game.  "What's that"? you ask.  Well you put on hat, gloves and a scarf and try and eat as much of the still wrapped, chocolate bar with a knife and fork BEFORE your friends who were passing a dice rolled a '6'.  You would no sooner get all the stuff on then you had to take them all off.  Then you had the obligatory sandwiches and crisps followed by jelly (jello) and ice-cream.  And for party favors everybody got a slice of cake wrapped in a napkin!

I realize it's not always going to be like that, that would be totally boring.  But it is quite amazing at how much some people spend on birthday parties.

Suri Cruise's butterfly themed 2nd birthday party was reported to have cost $100,000.
A Real Housewives star reportedly spent $60,000 on her daughters 4th birthday party.
Brooklyn Beckham was said to have received a custom built playhouse for his 6th birthday costing $187,000.
And a bargain party at a supposed $15,000 was Kingston Rossdale's 4th birthday party.

How much is too much?
Obviously it's really none of my business whatsoever how much people spend on their children's birthdays but I'm curious to know the average.

Parents magazine conducted a survey in 2010.  They asked 2,264 readers how much they expected to spend on their children's next birthday.
26 % said less than $75,
49 % said $75 to $200,
19 % said $200 or more, and
6 % said they didn't know.

During my career I have seen some extravagant birthday parties but not one that I would have expected to top $100,000.