Hey preschool… I don’t want to buy a delicious frozen dessert.
Hey middle school… I don’t want to purchase a subsrciption to Family Fun magazine. Or People en Espanol..
Hey elementary schools… I don’t want to buy an Italian measuring jug.
Or 2 square feet of wrapping paper for $150.
Or all-beef sausage. Yes, that’s correct. All-fucking-beef sausage.
Hey lacrosse team… I don’t want my car washed.
I don’t want to buy a raffle ticket.
I don’t want to pledge a dollar, or a dime, or even a penny for your swim-a-thon, swim team.
And… Hold on… Yeah you, you annoying girl scout. I don’t even want any girl scout cookies.
And neither do my parents. Or my other relatives. Or my neighbors.
Okay, so maybe I’m being a little hypocritical seeing as I just begged everyone repeatedly to donate money and support me in my triathalon.
But I did just shell out about $300 on school supplies. And I do already pay for preschool. And swim team. And baseball.
And even high school lacrosse and band.
What the hell??? That shit used to be free when I was in high school.
So here’s an idea for you schools — how about instead of buying an ipad for every single high school freshman, you shave a couple thousand dollars off that budget and buy some fucking pencils. And maybe even a glue stick.
Until that happens, I’ll make you parents a deal. My kids won’t ask you to buy any shit if your kids don’t ask me to buy any shit.
But if you want to donate money to me and my cause, well, that’s a different story. 😉
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I was just feeling the same way. My kids (and the 7 other kids that live within a 1/4 mile) all came home from an assembly all hyped up that they could work really hard at selling, and get an iPod. Of course, that didn’t happen. I’m pissed that the parent teacher association did that. Maybe to high school kids, who can get out and canvas the neighborhood. But to raise the hopes of these 5-8 year olds, then as parents, once again, I have to be the stingy jerk saying we can’t afford it. And they say, we don’t have to buy any, we can ask neighbors and friends and your co-workers… Ugh. I ought to turn this rant on them, not you, but I love that you said it first! I remember selling the crap and car washes and penny drives as a kid, and thought as an adult, I’d always help kids! Oops. I did buy a $1 cup of red juice from a lemonade stand by my dad’s house a while back, so I’m good.
My kids have accepted it. They don’t even ask anymore. At this point we just put the envelopes right into the recycling bin 😉
My kids are in elementary and I feel the same! Before having an assembly telling them all the “crap” they can win and a HUGE gift if they sell a billion, I think parents should be notified and asked first if they want to participate!!! BEFORE getting their lil hopes up only to be crushed!!
My husband and i both work for companies with strict “no solicitation” policies. It’s nice for us at work to not have to feel obligated to buy from everyone else and they don’t have to buy from me..but…we live in the way back country and all family is out of town so there was no one to sell to at all. My son learned real quickly that he wasn’t getting any of that “free” stuff. i hated that devastated look on his little face in the beginning though.
I didn’t know there were companies that even had “no solicitation” policies! That makes it a lot easier to say no 🙂
I feel the same way. My niece was fundraising for her 8th grade trip to Disney next year…(whatever happened to just going to the city or local water park.) Anyway, I told her that I am not buying anything, but I would give her some spending money instead. She liked that idea.
I really don’t mind the fundraisers themselves. But when we already pay for all their school supplies, that’s when I get pissed… I like the spending money idea. I think I may use that myself.