Have to admit, in total contrast to my wife, I really don't like spending a lot on big birthday parties and gifts for my children. So just wondering what people might consider as reasonable for a 10 and 12 year old? In total we generally spend about P6,000 on each of them for the gift.
When I've not been there for their birthdays which sadly has been most of them, James had me there more often when he was little but Janna had so many birthdays without either me or Ana, in gereral for me I would send P4,000 for a birthday party, it wasn't so much about a gift but to have a celebration for the family. Last year in July was only the second time I had been there on Janna's birthday, the first time was the day she was actually born, so the first time in her memory that I was there, in prior years she would sometimes ask for something and once she asked for an electric piano that was expensive but I bought it for her she was 9 years old. Last year we did a lot in June and July we went to Pico de Loro and I spent a fortune on jet ski rides and island hopping but for her birthday in July I took her and James on their first flight (James had flown as a baby but didn't remember it) and we went to Boracay and that was a present for her turning 15 we were on the island as she turned 15 and that video I've posted before of her singing Magbalik with a band on Boracay was taken 40 minute before she turned 15. I also gave her a party with her 2 friends and James and me at a posh hotel up in Taguig it was supposed to be posh food and so on, it was ok but I spent 11,000 on that night. This year (she loves music) I'm taking the amp and a pair of brand new speakers over for her the whole family will benefit but it is for her birthday, I posted pics of the kit on another thread, a really good amp and a great pair of British wee bookshelf speakers, with all the other bits plus OFC (Oxygen Free Copper) cables and extras I'll have spent £350 or more, but I'm trying to make up for all the years I wasn't there, I couldn't be there just because of the amount of annual leave I had. I did send extra for both James and Janna's 7th birthday because that's a special one in the Philipines, James at least had his mum there for that but Janna had to endure having her special birthday without either parent. I can see her saddness in this picture of her 7th birthday. edit: I would say I'm like you John I don't like spending a lot when they are really young but I make a lot of exceptions to my own rules now they are growing up.
