As a parent I organise and allow my children to attend birthday parties, which by the way appear to be weekly. I was astonished to read in yesterdays Observer(www.observer.co.uk) that some birthday parties in the UK are costing from £20,000 to £250,000.

The article quotes Caroline Hurley, director of Quintessentially Events who organised these events, "We also installed a giant gobstopper pond as well as circus games,a miniature bumper-car track and a carousel". Add to this a Willy Wonka and his troupe of oompa-loompas, the cost came to £20,000 for children and parents, who by the way were sipping champagne and eating canapes.

Ms Hurley goes onto say that spending £50,000 on childrens birthdays is not uncommon, and mentions that one parent actually spent £250,000 on one birthday so that a well known singer sings happy birthday to a 13-year-old girl.

Now, what people do with their money is up to them, but should ones child get invited to such a "event" what would you bring as a present?. I have a feeling that the Darth Vader Light Saber (£20) might look a little cheap laid next to the miniature Ferrari.

It also mentions that parents who do not agree with this or find the budget a stretch are still being sucked in putting on more lavish parties in a game of one-upmanship.There has been an upsurge in companies who specialise in exotic creatures doing 8 to 10 parties a weekend, providing amoung other things pythons for the children to play with. Now I am no snake expert but should one of these not get fed prior to being dispatched the consequences could prove messy.

One woman who had enough decided to go to France in order to avoid holding a birthday party for her child.Scary indeed.

All of a sudden the few bob that I have been putting away for my childrens education and future now looks inadequate.

The BBC is showing some of these findings over the next six weeks in a programme entitled The Madness of Modern Parenting starting to-morrow. Christ watching this will really cheer me up.

Oh Dear....

It can cost as little as 14p to provide a meal to a hungry child. The Aid agency Care says "Tonight, literally millions of children will go to bed hungry. Some of them will plead for food, not able to understand that their moms and dads simply have nothing to give them."

I'm sure this thirteen year old girl was very pleased with her birthday present. Would she have liked it better if that £250,000 had been spent to save lives?

£250,000 on a birthday present would do so much better elsewhere however I have a feeling the girl probably is unaware of their plight.

But at least we can do a little to help.