Where's My Lolly Bag? (2009)

Lolly Bags are a symbol of children's birthday parties, innocence, youth, fun, excitement and games. But what really goes on behind the scenes in planning and preparing for the big event? How do the Super mums of the millennium make this year better than the last? And what's really driving all this madness? The children themselves? or the parents who are reliving their own childhoods and making it better this time around? Where's My Lolly Bag? reveals there's more to children's parties than meets the eye...the politics, the pressure and the competitiveness of modern parents. To start things off we meet two 30-something Super Mums and high-powered woman of the world. We see snap shots of them frantically making phone calls, speed-reading the yellow pages, 'googling' till all hours of the morning in search for the perfect 'Lolly Bag' for their daughter's upcoming Birthday parties.. We meet their daughters and other parents and children who share their views and stories of what really goes on in planning children's parties. Tension is now rising as the date gets closer and we witness mother and daughter planning and preparing for the big day. Conflicts arise about the Lolly bags, theme of the party and other trivial matters. We learn through interviews the politics of distributing invitations, choosing lolly bags, themes and the rising costs parents are faced with and hear children's amusing perspectives on these events. Finally, the big day arrives and we share the excitement and fun of the children's experiences which are juxtaposed with the parent's involvement in keeping the event running smoothly. We are made aware of roles fathers typically play (or rather, underplay!) in these events, why parents put themselves under the pump to make the parties bigger and better than 'Ben Hur' This documentary is light-hearted, fun and quirky, but will leave viewers thinking about bigger issues.