I can't speak for the poster, but back in my young kids in suburbia life, it was common to get invited to kid parties for kids are hardly knew. And most parents wouldn't be bothered with getting a "real" gift. They would go buy whatever was < $10 at Walmart.

And the people hosting the parties would also go to Walmart and buy the 99cent "goodie" bags to hand out to the guest kids. Those bags contained cheap plastic spider rings, plastic whistles which were so malformed that they didn't whistle, etc.

Most of what was given and received would go into the garbage after everyone was home. It's an obscene waste of time, money, and resources. But now it feels like that reality is the common general reality, and that's what scares me.