Posted in My Homeschool FAQs
It has been only a little over a week since the public school went back in session and it has already started!
Adorable little kids are at my door trying to sell me goodies to support their school! Yesterdays crop could not have been more than 7 or 8 years old. Sigh....
I decided many years ago that I would not buy anything from kids selling for school. I look at it this way. I already pay my taxes to support schools and I also don't send my kids, so their portion can go to educate someone else. But, I still feel like the meanest lady on the block when I say no!
This is what happened....
Ding Dong!
ME - I go to the door and open it. All 3 kids are at my side because the door bell ringing at our house is a very exciting event!
KIDS (beaming, I must have been one of their 1st houses to stop at.) -
"Hi. I am selling stuff to make money for my school. Would you like to look a the catalog?" (He is surrounded by 3 of his friends who all look really happy!)
ME -
"Thanks for asking but I'm not interested."
KIDS (crestfallen) -
"Oh......Goodbye then."
ME -
"Good luck." closes door.
A half hour later....
We go outside to the car to leave on an errand and the same little group of 4 boys come walking back towards my house. Their heads are down. Their shoulders are slouching. They have obviously been to every house on the block and they look completely dejected. I smile at them and they keep their eyes towards the ground. I wanted to run after them! I wanted to grab the catalog and buy 2 of everything. (I mean we all know
I don't use wrapping paper but hey, it's for the kids!) It is just so unfair to these little kids to put them in this position. 1st off, these kids are way too young to be going door to door without parental guidance. I have never seen any of them before, so I am pretty sure they don't live in our neighborhood. So not only is it not a safe thing for them to do, it just isn't reasonable! Why should they have to be selling things to get money for their school? Don't the
compulsory education laws of our country assure these kids they have the right to a free education?
My kids know I don't buy things to support schools. After the little salesmen left my 13 year old started singing a revised version of
Oh Santa! from
The Toy That Saved Christmas, it went something like this...
I'm the government, and I've come to take your cash, come to take your cash with these cute kiddies, they' are so darling....Yes I know, that your taxes have been paid and some of that goes to schools, but it's not enough...No, it is not enough...because I'm greedy, I am so greedy!!! Now let me in! lalalalalala
If you are at all familiar with the song that is REALLY funny! (SLAM)
Sep. 7, 2007 - Untitled Comment
Okay, how funny is he?! Sound like you have got yourself a keeper. And by the way, has the shock of typing 'my thirteen year-old' gotten to you yet?
kathi
Sep. 7, 2007 - Untitled Comment
I love the song! I hate school fundraisers and actually have a hard time with doing any kind of fundraisers...I hate asking people for money. However, it looks like I will be involved in some myself this year as my children have joined a 4-H club. We have a fundraiser to do and we have a community project to work on (donating items to be sent to soldiers in Iraq.) Hopefully we won't be feeling too dejected.
Fundraisers are hard for us since I am a SAHM and my husband does contract work (it is totally inappropriate for him to ask around the work place). So we have to rely on family (I am an only child, my husband has one sister).
The last fund raisers my stepsons did required parental supervision when they were older. I can't believe those kids parents sent them off on the own, but I suppose that since they were in a pack they felt it was okay. Nothing like learning rejection at a tender age! I am sure it makes 'functioning adults' out of them.
Melissa
www.melissaomarkham.com
Sep. 7, 2007 - Untitled Comment
Well, I guess that is an advantage I have living in a community were almost everyone is retired. We don't get many kids on the street. I wish the system would figure out how to make extra money without making the kids do it. They have to work hard enough on their schoolwork.
Blessings,
4sweetums
Sep. 7, 2007 - ugh..
I'm in a dubious position out here.. at the Native Youth Olympics last year I bought 7 raffle tickets (I don't even believe in light gambling) and won a chocolate cake (I'm on a diet) and blushed under the stares of all the folk present who think the missionaries are too snobbish to support our schools... and in some bush villages homeschooling Christians have put their kids in school just to keep the schools open (you need a certain number of kids to get funding for a school).
But I agree with you... I remember as a young girl scout there was a year I didn't sell cookies. I lived at the apartment complex in town and my leader was mortified that there I was with all those neighbors and I was too selfish to sell cookies (clearly she didn't understand that every girl scout in town headed over there before they even did their own neighborhood). That year there were rumors of a local pedophile and none of us kids living there went around alone, and certainly not to sell cookies. As a result -- I wasn't allowed to the party when they were done selling cookies. Point? That even though I understand the concept of kids learning the responibility of saving money for opportunities, there are better ways... the group car wash with a chaperone I have and had no problem with. Little kids going door to door selling over priced items and raffle tickets is another matter. 3 Cheers for your post :-)
Sep. 7, 2007 - Untitled Comment
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Posted by Lizzie
