When did school fund raising become so elaborate and involved? These kids are bringing home full blown catalogs!
When I was a kid Holiday fund raising was candy and it was a SINGLE sheet front and back with the choices. Now they are catalogs with wrapping paper swatches and you can buy anything from candies to jewelery and nick knacks, candles and picture frames. The likes of which could rival an Avon catalog, Seriously, this thing is 25-30 pages long. I'm tellin you,there is absolutely NO way I'm helping, and YES I am even discouraging my child from trying to sell anything. Could you imagine? Handing a co-worker, neighbor, or some other poor unsuspecting soul, a short novel, 'Would you like to support our school?'. I shudder to think! First they would have to flip through (which may take a while) and decide what they want all the while juggling all the shorter thinner catalogs and every other thing in this packet, then the poor child would have to figure out how to place the order (heaven help them if its more than one thing from more than one booky thingy) and then be responsible for the money, making change and such as well as be responsible for the order and deliver it once it arrives. Then there is the pressure to do well in order to win some elaborately cheep prize, who is selling 500 items? and how the heck does it work?. I just don't think that is right.
The other side of this is, drum roll please....Giving the child the items to be sold up front!
Am I the only one that thinks this is nutso? My oldest child joined a movie club, and as part of their fund raising the children sold those world's finest chocolate bars. The teacher asked the students to get VERBAL permission from their parents and proceeded to give each child $100 worth of chocolate. And of course my child forgot to ask or say anything to me concerning this. Why on earth would anyone give a prepubescent adolescent child $100 dollars worth of chocolate and assume they can handle the responsibility of that much money? Uneducated (read: inexperienced or bad) choices coupled with peer pressure in everyday life can be enough of a challenge for a 6th grader, to say the least, without the added responsibilities of "fund raising", specifically without written parental consent! Heavy sigh! Okay, I'm better now, no, really I am.
When I became a mother I had had such great inspirations to be a PTA mom and over the years I have realized I am not. Really and truly NOT, AT ALL. And I'm okay with that.
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