Don't even get me started!!
AND THEN each teacher wants 2 or 3 of these....
And of course 2 or 3 of these....
And i might as well take out stock in THIS company for as many as i have to provide the school with!!
And hand sanitizer by the gallons... which by the way is pretty scary in itself that children are using this stuff!!!
Take a second to read this:
http://www.snopes.com/medical/toxins/sanitizer.asp
As a mom of 4 i shop ONLY the major sales on school supplies! I start in June when they start putting them on the shelves and putting on massive sales. I HAVE to!! Last year school supplies alone - no clothes - ran me $330 ON SALE!!!!! Can you believe it??!!!
What kills me is how the school is now putting their budget constraints on us, and expecting us to buy their chalk, dry erase markers, wipes, supplies, and LIGHT BULBS!!!??
What's next? Are they going to start sending us their electric bill too?? Sooo NOT cool!
I don't mind helping here and there, but hitting us parents with these huge quadruple whammies right at the start of school - and then if you don't have ALL that was on your list, the teachers start haranguing the children. To the point of "you have to stay in for lunch until you bring in your paper towels (or insert whatever they are missing!!!!) THAT doesn't fly with me!! Last year after spending wayyyyy above our budget to try and make sure our kids had everything they needed... we were short on a few things - specifically for one class. For a 7th grade middle schooler (we're not talking college here people!!). This one class demanded that each child have an oversized binder, with a pencil pouch full of markers, crayons, colored pencils, highlighters, dry erase markers, erasers, etc SOLELY for THAT class - to be left in that class - so those supplies would not be allowed to be used across the board for all their classes!!!
HELLO?
So we were expected to buy doubles and triples of these things. That in my opinion is just wrong! We personally cannot afford to stock the school supply shelves, much less get all our kids stocked, feeling confident and excited about school! I don't mind a box of kleenex here or there, or a bag of snacks, or even a mid season request of extra paper or whatever. But over $150 in school supplies PER KID is rediculous!! Especially when most of the KIDS don't even TOUCH those supplies - they go to supply the rest of the school needs!!!
ARRRGGGGHHH
This is hugely irritating to me. And i will stop here (for fear of running on and on and on for the next three days and getting myself all worked up into a tizzy!! LOL)
School starts today for Calli, and tomorrow for Bay and Em. We have "most" of the supplies. The rest is going to have to wait until i have an extra hundred bucks or two! And if that doesn't happen... well TBSS!!!
(carefully climbing down off my soap box, so i don't trip and end up with both feet in my mouth)
xo bren
6 comments:
Oh, Bren ~ I can't believe it!! It's been a long while since my kids were in school but I don't hear my big kids talking about this ~ I'm going to ask. That's outrageous ~ where do you live that school starts so early?? Maybe you don't want to say ~ that's okay. Here in Ohio, school starts after labor day ~ a whole month away!! We get pretty tired of being nailed for tax money ~ we think the schools should run their business like we have to run ours!! So ~ you have my sympathy ~ people need an extra job just to get those little darlings off to school!!
Alice
Oh Bren, I know how you feel. I would get started, but the soapbox is not BIG enough lol. Amazing how when we were younger, everything was given to us on the first day of school (our supplies). If we needed more, then we had to pay for them. Our taxes, I thought, were supposed to go towards all of this. Doesn't seem that way. On top of all of this, (not sure how your school works), but our kids get their school pictures taken the first week of school! It truly is amazing how much money is put out in the first couple months of school, and I have always said I feel sorry for the ones that have more than one child! Mine are 6 years apart, and my oldest is going back to school for his bachelors degree. So he's on his own. Now I only have my teenage daughter. But THAT is a bill in itself LOL. I'll step off the curb now. I'll leave the soapbox for the next person! Hang in there.
Good going.! My kids are ready for back to school with their school supplies.
Geez O Pete's Tweeter!
That kinda takes all the fun out of "back to school" shopping. That was always my favorite thing as a kid....getting some new pencils, a cool folder on it with maybe Shawn Cassidy and a neat-O lunchbox with Underdog.
How do they get all this "stuff" to school?!
LOL Thanks for listening to me rant a little, and being so supportive you guys!
Alice, we are in Colorado - and yes we always used to start right after memorial day too!! I think it's so sad that they lose a whole month of summer!!
Kathy - no kidding!! Yep school pictures, locker fees, gym fees, sports fees you name it - all in the first week! We have to save year round to be able to do it - and it's getting harder every year now that they are requiring sooo much more for each child! I just wanna scream! As it really puts us in a very precarious situation - when the kids need shoes, pants shirts, socks and all that good stuff on top of all this!
Tammy - EXACTLY!!! LOLOL on the Shaun Cassidy folders!!! :P I had such a major crush on him and had several posters and folders with his mug shot on it! (gag can't figure out WHY now?? lol or star wars) But each child fills their backpack AND usually about two grocery sacks full of all the stuff they have to bring. Sometimes it takes two or three days to get it all to school!
I took a stand last year and made my (and our neighborhood women's) voices heard. And pretty much told them, my focus is my child's ability to learn, and clorox wipes will not affect that, and if i can't afford it then i won't be buying them! The Jr. High must have gotten A LOT of complaints last year, as they scaled it back quite a bit this year - Praise God!! But elementary got worse. sigh. It is what it is!
boy oh boy Brenis I'm with you on this! these words you're speaking could just as well be coming out of my mouth! we still haven't began our school supply shopping and I'm totally dreading it but I'm sure I'll think of you and your soapbox and SMILE : )
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