There are so many times when parents or pregnant women say, "No one ever told me..." Well, as a parent, no one ever told me that I was going to have to take on a second sales job simply by virtue of procreating.
This is the time of year for fundraisers, apparently. Both Brother's school and Jelly Bean's daycare have sent home things for us to dump on our family in exchange for cold hard cash. And we don't really have any family around, sadly. My poor parents. Pity them. Now, due to my new found knowledge (Thank you, University!) of how crappily schools are funded in this state, I didn't even groan when Brother brought home a box of gargantuan chocolate bars for two dollars a piece. No, what I did was call my mother and proceed to strong arm her into buying a slew of them. It went down not unlike a certain 700 billion dollar deal.
Me: So, Brother is selling chocolate bars. How many do you want?
Mom: Um, can I just give you $10 and you keep the chocolate?
Me: No. How many employees does Dad have?
Mom: Um, how about I buy 5?
Me: What? 15 bars? No. How many employees does Dad have?
Mom: You know he won't sell stuff to his employees.
Me: I am not asking him to sell it to them. I want him to buy it and give it to them. So, 15?
Now, this morning, Jelly Bean's daycare sent home a catalog of cheap Chinese shit that is entirely overpriced. I bitchily told the little college girl at the daycare who watches my kid all day that, "We will not be participating." But it isn't true. (Do you do that? Get perturbed right off the bat and say something that you won't follow through on? Does this make me a liar?) I will probably drag the catalog over to my mom's and give her the old puppy eyes. Even though I think it is ridiculous that I have to pay these people to take care of my kid and also sell stuff so they can buy Halloween decorations or some other frivolity. Like toilet paper. Or food.
But, I like the Halloween decorations. (Shrug)
And yesterday, Brother's teacher sends home a photocopy of some craft projects she wants to do for the holidays, but doesn't have the money for. She sent home the prices for the kits and it would cost less than $10 for the entire class to make snowman magnets or little stocking tree ornaments. But she doesn't have the money. *Sigh* So, I shelled out $5 and sent it in an envelope. Who says public education is free? Who?
7 comments:
Sheesh. I see the need for it (unfortunately) in public schools but in daycare?! NO!!!
I hate all of this stuff, too. Especially because K's school took the time to HOLD AN ASSEMBLY to get the kids all fired up about the cheap crap they'll "win" if they sell the most junk. There's a good use of school time. I would much, much rather write a check to our PTO and be done with it.
We're all in sales!
I sit on our Parents Committee at Maggie's Daycare (you can groan/laugh). At least I get to pick which fundraisers we do (it's a non-proft centre, so I don't mind doing fundraising for some extras). This year it's flower bulbs, Mabel's Labels and cookie dough.
Ok, I refuse to sell anything fro daycare. Hellz nos!!
But for school I will. And scouts, should my kids join up. For now, I am the buyer.
Lucky, you have candy bars to sell! Not that I want to eat them, but they would be easier to sell than the overpriced stuff in E's catalogue. For two years now I have been just sending the catalogue back with a check for a small donation, still more money than I would have been able to scam off my friends and family. And I tell E I will get her a jumprope or whatever cheap toy she would have won.
My M is in a not-for-profit day care too so I do find myself with the occasional fundraiser. And school, oh ya, the necessary evil of fundraising. My D's school is only 4 years old and the provincial govt cut all funding for books for the library and school supplies for the teachers (among a whole lot more). His school opened with not one book on the shelf. I thought it was shameful. We (the school council, I am an executive member) give each teacher $500 a year for supplies (including books for the class, paper, chalk etc) and they still often buy stuff with their own money. And as parents we have to give out $15 each year along with a shit load of supplies we buy ourselves... Its crazy. oh sorry for the rant.
ha! i just got the flyer from my son's school yesterday listing all their fundraisers too... bags of chips now, entertainment books later, then poinsettias after that, etc etc...
free education... HA!
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