Mum blames housing crisis for big change at birthday parties

"So rude, I couldn't believe it. I blame the parents."

Some of us were raised by parents who believed that when you receive a gift, you should open it in front of the giver, immediately.

Because, how rude would it be not to show immediate appreciation? 'Show' being the operative word, because we were schooled in giving a polite response, no matter what the gift was.

Now, according to one mum, we shouldn't expect that of our kids anymore - and opening gifts can wait until a party's done. So, she's taken issue with a woman who thinks that lack of gratitude at the time of receiving is just not bloody good enough.

Cue yet another online parenting debate that's made many question their habits.

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"Hear me out, it's better this way"

The debate starts with a woman named Nichole Roberts complaining on TikTok that she, and presumably her child, were at two kids' birthday parties recently, and "at both of these parties, the child did not open their birthday presents."

Although we don't see the rest of the clip, it's clear what Nichole means - that it feels impolite and a departure from the way things once were  - because of how a woman named Meg responds to it.

"Hear me out, it's way better this way," she begins in her own clip.

"Back in the day, parties were at a house, and now no one has a house. So now we rent venues for parties. We get the venue for a set amount of time, and it's several hundred dollars.

"So kids come in, they put their present down, and they go off. They spend the time playing and having fun and enjoying each other's company."

Then speaking of the pile of gifts, Meg says, "Everything all together, it's not torn, and it's easy to put into your car. And you can just [open them] at home, later."

Nichole slammed the move as bad manners. Image: iStock/TikTok

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"New ways are good"

Meg captioned the clip "New ways are good." Viewers agreed that dealing with gifts after the party was the right thing to do - for many reasons.

"I have like I have four kids: all their birthdays are in a two-month span so we have one party.  It's too much to keep track of in the moment, so they can open it all later."

And this person agreed, writing, "As someone who rents one of these venues, I appreciate the hell out of just doing the activity, maybe a little bit of cake, then getting out ASAP."

This viewer noted, "That's a parenting win in my book - I think experiences are more important to kids than gifts."

Finally, there was one comment that was heartbreaking: "Being kind of a poor kid, it was embarrassing knowing other kids could afford better gifts to give then all saw who was the 'poor' gift kid."

Speaking from experience as a child who was told the 'thank you' was all-important when greedily snatching a gift, I can report that no parents I spoke to agreed that it should be an expectation on children to do performative acts at their birthday parties.

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Originally published as Mum blames housing crisis for big change at birthday parties