This mom is over classroom treat bags and TBH, we get it

Having young kids right now can be a lot. There are the over-the-top birthday parties, the constant theme days. And now, in a viral video on TikTok, one mom is taking aim at the treat bags some parents send home for classroom parties for every single holiday and to be honest, we get it.

“Parents of little kids, can we stop making full-on gift bags for every kid in the class for every single holiday?” Renee Reina begged in her video. “When I was growing up, it was Valentine’s Day cards. That’s it. Now, every single holiday—Halloween, Christmas, Valentine’s, Easter—it’s like my child comes home with a full-on gift bag from every other kid in the class. We bought the teachers gifts. That’s normal. But every single kid in the class—a gift bag. Plus birthday parties, another gift bag. Like, how many gift bags do we need?”

She has a point. Those gift bags are, more often than not, filled with cheap junk that’s going to end up cluttering up your house. Sure, it might come off as ungrateful. But do kids really need 20 bags of bubbles, mini coloring books, and tiny, cheap plastic toys from the Target Dollar Spot? You know it’s all going to end up in the garage sale box during your next decluttering day.

Still, reactions to Reina’s videos were mixed. Plenty of parents are in support of treat bags, and took to the comments to let her know.

“I love doing it because sometimes that’s the only ‘gift’ some kids are receiving. It may be one or 2 nicer things and some candy but I love it!!” one mom wrote.

Another added, “I’m healing my inner child. Wasn’t allowed to celebrate anything growing up. You know I’m passing out goody bags all year round.”

That’s fine and all, but work on healing your inner child with your therapist, not by projecting your trauma on a class of 8-year-olds.

One parent commented simply, “I do it because I know it makes the kids happy.”

I guess we can’t argue with that. As much as the kids are likely to toss those treat bags aside once they get home, they do make them happy in the moment. But parents, can we at least agree on this? The parents who want to make elaborate treat bags can have at it, as long as there’s zero judgment for the parents who still send their kids with nothing but paper valentines from Dollar Tree. Deal? Deal.