Ugh. I wish I had remembered that today was the day of the assembly to "get the kids excited" about the school fundraiser so I could have prepared my child. You know, the one where parents awkwardly and with embarrassment ask their friends and coworkers to buy expensive crap from a catalog and then are obligated to buy expensive crap from their kids in return. And the kids' heads are spinning with all the prizes they "can earn".
I remember my mom dashing my hopes of winning a school shirt and a bike if I could sell the most candy bars at Ammon Elementary. Annalee cried as I dashed her hopes of winning a scooter if she could sell 100 things. I had to try to explain to her, in language she could understand, why these things are such a rip-off and how they exploit children. And I explained to her what exploiting means, and we compared it to commercials that get kids excited about toys their parents can't afford. And we compared the prizes to cheap toys at the dollar store, which they have learned break, time and time again.
But of course she still wanted to do it, because she was so excited by the assembly. So I showed her a list of all the fundraisers the school is doing during the year and how other ones are also really fun and benefit the school more and don't alienate my friends. I told her that when they hand out the prizes, we will go do something fun as a family. I told her that if she really wanted a scooter she could ask for one for Christmas. And she was almost okay with it.
Grrrrrr....
I remember my mom dashing my hopes of winning a school shirt and a bike if I could sell the most candy bars at Ammon Elementary. Annalee cried as I dashed her hopes of winning a scooter if she could sell 100 things. I had to try to explain to her, in language she could understand, why these things are such a rip-off and how they exploit children. And I explained to her what exploiting means, and we compared it to commercials that get kids excited about toys their parents can't afford. And we compared the prizes to cheap toys at the dollar store, which they have learned break, time and time again.
But of course she still wanted to do it, because she was so excited by the assembly. So I showed her a list of all the fundraisers the school is doing during the year and how other ones are also really fun and benefit the school more and don't alienate my friends. I told her that when they hand out the prizes, we will go do something fun as a family. I told her that if she really wanted a scooter she could ask for one for Christmas. And she was almost okay with it.
Grrrrrr....
2 comments:
I also am not a fan of fundraisers. I don't remember constantly having them growing up. Don't get me wrong I clip and save all labels and do lots of volunteering wishing I could do more, I'm just not a salesperson.
Ugh. I hate fundraisers and I hate that brain-washing assembly. Sounds like Annalee gets it way better than my kids. They think they can win the big prize every time. Moms not going to shell out $200 so you can win a $15 toy. Sorry kids.
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