Peer pressure for parents to host elaborate and expensive child birthday celebrations has become the springboard issue that has launched the "Birthdays Without Pressure" website and an accompanying media campaign.

The Birthdays Without Pressure site documents stories that include parents spending as much as $10 million for their child's birthday party. Other entries on the site recount the rental of a cougar, a llama, and a helicopter for entertainment at a children's party, as well as a fire station as a party location.

Dr. George Wiedmaier, parenting outreach director for Focus on the Family, says the new Internet site offers shared party experience stories, a birthday pressure quiz, and a community pressure survey as well as ideas for simpler parties -- all of which he believes may be helpful to parents facing this issue. However, he suspects these parents may need to deal with the causes rather than just the symptoms of the problem.

"There's got to be a deeper, underlying issue here," Wiedmaier insists, "whether one wants to talk about it in terms of materialism, in terms of keeping up with the Joneses, in terms of just feeling the pressure. Why is there pressure in the first place?"

Also, since this parental advice website does not come from a faith perspective, the Focus on the Family official points out, that makes it even more necessary for the group's members to examine themselves and their motivations for clues about why they need help from others to say no.

"I would ask the question of where is the pressure coming from," Wiedmaier says. "What is the root of the pressure?" he asks. "Why do we feel the need to spend so much money on presents and so much for kids? What's the teaching that's going on for our kids in this manner?"

Because the parental counseling expert is coming from a Christian faith perspective, he has concerns about whether the reasons offered at the Birthdays Without Pressure site are adequate to explore the possibly spiritual issues behind why many parents are throwing overly elaborate child parties. The Internet site's explanations range from overcompensation for busy work schedules to competitive spirits to consumerism and others.

While the so-called "underlying reasons" suggested by the Birthdays Without Pressure website may be fine places to start, Wiedmaier feels they are unlikely to lead to any genuine resolution. He encourages the creators of this resource for parents who overdo their kids' birthday parties to look at the internal pressures that might be the real root of the problem.