I'm going to blow your mind because my mind was blown this weekend.

There was an article in the New York Times.

My wife brought this to my attention.

I guess the article was written about a month ago, but I didn't see it,

about how in Southern California, toddler parties, birthday parties for kids

is becoming a competition among parents and getting out of control.

And when I, when she first told me about this, I said, well, you know, in my neighborhood

when I was growing up, the parents had little competitions.

The Italian families would throw these ridiculous gatherings that they probably couldn't

afford.

Sure.

And it was, like I remember down the block, there was a girl named Rosa, and she had her first

communion.

It was like a wedding.

Oh, wow.

It was ridiculous.

You know, the Italians always want to show off.

And I'm sure we're not the only ethnic group that do this, but, you know, they would take

out a mortgage on their house, even if it was

paid for just because they had to make the communion look nice.

But even that.

That's a lot.

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