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Should I be offended?
My daughters came home filled with entrepreneurial spirit the other day announcing that they were going to win all kinds of prizes by selling things on behalf of the school. Apparently my tax dollars aren't enough or the override that passed last year that will raise my taxes.Okay, I do understand that fundraising is now part of my life with school age children. In the past I have sold softball raffle tickets and countless amounts of girl scout cookies (there is nothing better than a Carmel Delite when PMS is hitting now is there?)
The folks that are running this program actually pulled my children out of class for 1 hour to teach them how to sell wrapping paper, magazines and chocolate.1 HOUR?
Not only that, but they dangled these "wonderful" prizes in front of them for selling a certain amount of items. Now Cal, my little one would be ok with the glow in the dark pen she will get when she sells my dad $12.00 worth of Gourmet Chocolate Malted Milk Balls (otherwise known as Whoppers). But the older daughter has her eyes on a Glow in the Dark Frog Alarm Clock. The good news is, she only has to sell about 75 rolls of wrapping paper, chocolates or magazines...yeah sounds easy enough??Obviously, she cannot go door to door to do this. We do have neighbors who we can safely call on to buy stuff from....if it weren't for the fact that their kids are also selling the same stuff...
So now I am guilting my coworkers and relatives to buy $12.00 Whoppers and Magazines...I think what really offends me most is that they took my kids out of class to pressure sell them into selling....
I get dirty looks when I bring them in late because of an orthodontist appointment.Am I wrong?
Sometimes, my kids have actually gotten the prize, and have then generally discovered it wasn't nearly as wonderful as they'd expected. More often, they don't get the prize, and then they learn other lessons. Either way, I figure, it's not my responsibility to earn their prize for them.
Fund-raising assemblies? I don't like them, but they're not going to go away until a LOT of parents complain, and then come up with some other way to earn that money for their school...