3 ways to save money on your kids party 💰🎉

A roundup of the hilarious parenting content from the week, guaranteed to make you smile, if not laugh out loud. Plus the odd helpful tips.

Happy Saturday Dads!

One of the hardest things about having a second child is the realisation that your parenting skills are actually bang average… and that you just got reeeaaally lucky with your first child.

Coming up this week…

• 3 ways to save money on your kids birthday party

• Try this trick to get your kid walking

• Put an end to your toddler’s noisy Christmas presents

• Recipe of the week

• Jamie Oliver approaching discipline with creativity

As always, if you enjoyed this week’s edition and think you might know someone else who would, please do share. We know how tough being a parent can be, and sometimes you just need a moment to laugh at some of the craziness.

Thanks for reading, and enjoy that beer once it finally comes.

Fred @

For Dads

(a fellow dad of 2)

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👀 As seen on Insta

The links below will take you to the relevant platform and you do not need an account to watch the videos; they are just a little light relief to make you smile on a Saturday morning.

• When you take baby-led weaning too far

• When your photography A-Level really comes into its own

• Too late for halloween but it would certainly make the walk back from nursery entertaining

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🔢 It’s all in the numbers

Unless you’re lucky to have children old enough to enjoy Lazer Quest and Paintballing, then the idea of kids’ parties likely fill you with dread.

Do we need to buy a present? Do we have to invite the whole class? What the f*** goes into a party bag? Do I need to serve booze? How do I make it clear that it’s a 1-parent policy without sounding like a dick?

With the average cost of a party sitting at a cool £500 (party + presents), it’s any wonder we don’t just scrap the whole thing.

But seeing as they’re probably here to stay, here are a few things that might help you when the time comes:

1. Look for the group discount

Work with nursery, school or your child to find kids with similar date birthdays and see if you can pool your efforts. Not only will you save on the budget, it’ll mean fewer Saturday’s stuck at the top of soft plays.

2. Get smart with your party bags

The little things add up so why not try one of these two routes instead:

• Let Amazon do the work for you - buy 12 party bags with all the fillings right here

• Scrap the “bag” idea and just look for that one genuinely cool item that the kids will actually be excited about

3. Don’t overthink the cake

Some people will charge an arm-and-a-leg for a custom-made Frozen cake. A cheaper alternative would be a ready-made cake from your local supermarket, some food colouring and a few Frozen figurines from Amazon.

Alternatively: “I hate Colin the Caterpillar” said no one, ever. Plus if your kid is pretty young, they’ve probably never even seen him before, and what child doesn’t love bugs?

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⚒️ Try this at home

We’re not saying this will definitely work, but if you have a baby on the cusp of taking their first steps*, I guess what we’re saying is; why wouldn’t you give it a go?

*we assume this won’t work on a 2-month old!

Full video here.

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💻 Dad hack of the week

Hands up if you’ve sent a complaint email recently asking why the manufacturers only created one volume function on that ridiculous toy your kid was given?

Just us then.

Well if anyone else is in the same boat, then we’ve found the cure.

Put a plaster over the speaker on the toy…it’s so simple!

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🍽️ Recipe of the week

Take onboard the notes below the ingredients to turn this recipe into a 5 minute dish.

@moonandrue

Recipe: BROCCOLI & CREAM CHEESE PASTA

🥦 A handful of broccoli florets (mashed)

🧀 A spoonful of cream cheese

🍝 Pasta

Notes:

1. ALWAYS look out for the Quick Cook pasta at the supermarket. It’s a 4 min boil which is a lifesaver when moving at speed.

2. Someone mentioned the value of having a bag of frozen broccoli florets in the freezer and we can’t recommend it enough.

Full recipe here

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⭐ How the stars do it

Someone once gave us the incredibly insightful advice that you should never judge parents with children older than your own.

Which is why we’re holding off judgment from Jamie Oliver’s alternative approach to discipline.

“I give them chillies for punishment. It is not very popular beating kids any more, it’s not very fashionable and you are not allowed to do it and if you are a celebrity chef like me it does not look very good in the paper. So you need a few options.”

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Upcoming dates that it might be worth having up your sleeve:

• Energy Saving Week | 17-23rd Jan; get your kids to metaphorically “shoot the lights” as a way of educating them on reducing your energy usage. (They can use their hands as guns pointed at the lights as you flick the switches)

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That’s it for this week folks.

Thanks again for reading, as always we leave you with one HILARIOUS joke to share with the family.

How do you have a party in space?

You planet.

source: @dadsaysjokes

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