School fundraisers.

**Dancing Lotus** · 02-18-2009, 07:33 AM

Why do school's have to do this?

My daughter was sent home with not one but no less then 6 scholastic books order forms in one day. I don't buy them every time because we already have tons of books. I buy all our books at yard sales and thrift stores for never more then .50

My daughter was hurt that I wasn't going to buy any this time. She cried and said I never get her any and all the other kids get them , blah , blah , blah. So I caved and let her pick out two books.
I returned the forms with a check and in only three days time they sent home 6 more.......

I don't want my child to feel like the the poor kid in class. But I absolutely can not afford to buy these books. I choose to purchase used books, it's green and cheap

I understand it's a fundraiser but am I the only one who thinks this is just little too much?

My husband once asked for statistics about how much is raised per child per year via fundraiser. He said he would just write them a check. He never got the info.

**phoeny_moonstar** · 02-18-2009, 07:36 AM

I wholeheartedly understand your frustration with this. My DD9 brings home fundraisers for all sorts of things, girl scouts, school, church,it's just competely overwhelming.

Keep your chin up, it's a good thing getting out of debt and not playing into the hands of someone else!!

**thesightofoneself** · 02-18-2009, 07:39 AM

scholastic is horrible. i wouldnt give them another penny.

how old is your daughter? because i would try to explain to her that its pointless to buy from them.

**Momto2Boyz** · 02-18-2009, 07:50 AM

We have the same problem here. Both of my kids (grade school and preschool) bring home scholastic and so many other fundraising catalogs.

What I think is worse, is with the regular fundraising catalogs (which are filled with overpriced junk like candies and wrapping paper) is that they really push the kids to do it. They have a big assembly and throw all kinds of propaganda at the kids about selling the most. They get dinky little prizes, and I think it is a horrible way to manipulate kids!

When we got the very first one when my son was in kindergarten, DH and I made it clear that we would not participate in these. We won't buy and we won't have our son sell them.

We do participate in a few of the charitable fundraisers like jump rope for heart, that goes to the American Heart Association and a couple others they do, but that is it!

**Spirit Deer** · 02-18-2009, 08:12 AM

We quit supporting that stuff when I was a Girl Scout leader and found out how little money the girls got per box of cookies sold. What a racket to have little kids work their hearts out selling and then their troop still can't afford to do anything because they get pennies per box. To this day I cannot support the Girl Scouts because of their tactics, particularly when they don't seem to use that money to support the troops beyond the pittance the girls get for cookie sales.

Making it into a selling contest just sets a kid up to fail. I can remember how I felt like such a failure as a kid when I'd try so hard to sell things, but never got close to being the top seller. My family was poor and we lived in a poor neighborhood where people couldn't afford to buy useless overpriced junk.

Does your daughter get any spending money of her own? If so, maybe next time you could do some kind of 'matching funds' arrangement. Put a dollar limit on it and whatever she wants to spend, match it. If she is like our kids, she's a tightwad herself. It's a whole different story when they have to dish out their own money.

Your daughter needs to learn not to cave in to peer pressure. It's books today, but when she's an adult, she will feel pressured to spend, possibly beyond her means, on things like fancy houses and expensive cars. That can lead to real trouble, as we all know just by looking at our national economy at the moment. In the shorter term, if a child cannot resist peer pressure, it can lead to all sorts of bad things that won't necessarily have anything to do with money.

We went through this too and had to take a hard line on it. We had five in high school at the same time, and they were in sports and choir and all kinds of activities that dealt with fundraisers. We were living paycheck to paycheck at the time and simply could not buy everything they brought home, so we had to have a blanket rule to buy nothing. The kids adjusted to it because they didn't have another choice, just as we really didn't have a choice not to buy the fundraiser items.

I do agree with simply writing a check to the beneficiary of a fundraiser, rather than buying something that's overpriced and giving the group a few pennies. If they're not willing to tell you how much they get per item sold though, I wouldn't feel guilty not doing so. I would have to assume they really don't need my money if they aren't willing to share that information.

I wonder how much pressure the schools and other non-profits are under from the companies that sell them the items they in turn sell.

**Dancing Lotus** · 02-18-2009, 08:23 AM

The books are the only thing we have bought. I refuse to buy a box of candy or wrapping paper. It's just ridiculous.

**TexasPeanut** · 02-18-2009, 09:25 AM

Wow what timing to see this thread. Last week my 6th grade son brought home a 2 scholastic book fair sales books and order forms, smencils (pencils that smell, that he has to sell for field trips in a class), a PTO spring fundraiser with the most gaudy and overpriced pieces of junk in it, and cancer cure for kids envelope to fill with money (minimum donation per person $10!). all in one week. Are they crazy? Number one, I have never in all his years of schooling ordered any books from scholastic, we can go to the local bookstore and get them much cheaper (used) if necessary. Number 2, no way in heck am I buying some piece of crap for $30 to collect dust in the closet just so he can win a plastic yo-yo. I did donate the $10 to the cancer cure for kids and I bought 4 smencils at $1 a piece, my son bought 3 smencils with his own allowance money. That's all I'm doing. It's getting ridiculous.

The one thing that always helped me with the books when my son was in elementary was to take him to the bookstore and let him pick out one or two books (preferably used) just so he was getting new book(s) at that time. Instead of spending $15-$20 through scholastic I would spend $7

**IntlMom** · 02-18-2009, 09:44 AM

We don;t buy anything that the school sends home, nor do we participate in school fundraisers. Nor do we feel guilty for not participating....I am happy to fund my childs education, and even enjoy giving monetary assistance to teachers that make exceptional impact on my childrens education and lives. But I refuse to be expected to participate in overpriced fundraisers. It doesn't bother my boys either, cause it's just the way it's always been.

**elphie** · 02-18-2009, 09:53 AM

When my kids were in public school they always wanted to order from book orders and I let them... with their own money. Its funny how quickly they get over it when they have to let go of some precious birthday money or their very meager allowance (my kids only get $2 per week and some of that has to go into savings, some to church).

As for the other fundraisers... I used to teach and I was in a few of those assemblies. It is deplorable the way they manipulate kids. The kids get junky prizes, the school gets a small piece of the profit, and the company gets rich. Its little more than a pyramid scheme with our kids on the bottom of the pyramid.

Especially icky on their part last year the kids had to sell two items to get to go to an assembly featuring a stunt bike rider... those who didn't sell were left behind in the classroom!

Believe me, fits were thrown, calls were made but the principal would not budge.

**Spirit Deer** · 02-18-2009, 10:04 AM

Originally Posted by elphie

Especially icky on their part last year the kids had to sell two items to get to go to an assembly featuring a stunt bike rider... those who didn't sell were left behind in the classroom!

Believe me, fits were thrown, calls were made but the principal would not budge.

Oh, man. I'd have started with the superintendent and gone up from there if I couldn't get any satisfaction from the principal. That's horrible and inexcusable.

**frugalbabe** · 02-18-2009, 10:12 AM

My favorite was last week my kids brought home this thing saying they were going to be a published author! All I had to do was send $14.95 per book...and yes the kids had been working hard on their books and I was free to order as many books as I wanted from each child. Oh please! Are you serious? Much to my kids' horror I marked the "no thanks" box. I don't even do school photos anymore (gasp!) it's way cheaper (and better quality) to go to JC Penneys, and my kids' school takes pictures like three times a year. I am officially the meanest mom ever!

**elphie** · 02-18-2009, 10:42 AM

oh we did, we went to the superintendent and the school board and they all agreed that this was an acceptable way to "encourage" everyone to participate... even if I ever decide to send my kids back to public school it WILL NOT be THAT one!

**MomToTwoBoys** · 02-18-2009, 11:04 AM

They send home those forms with my oldest son as well. I don't mind them so much because he doesn't expect me to buy him a lot of books from school. YDS wants books all of the time, so thankfully they send him home with reading books every night from the school's library.

Both kids' schools do other fundraising activities as well and they seem to do pretty well from those.

**rainbowgc** · 02-18-2009, 11:18 AM

Well I am done with that because my children are grown and on their own. That said, i put up a "No Solicitors" sign and the little girl that sells Girl Scout cookies saw me outside one day and told me it was cookie time and I just said "oh". I guess her mom told her what the sign meant. Now I love children and I normally would have bought some but it irritates DH and I that the children from this family call us by our first names and we don't like that at all.

**TigerGirl1226** · 02-18-2009, 11:39 AM

We have been getting the magazine subscription envelopes from kids we know. Last month, we got them for a couple cousins and if I were to buy it would be from them, but we just don't do magazines. Now we are getting them from the daughter of DH's childhood friend who is on our Christmas card list. A little bothersome.

With that being said, our DD will be going to private school and I know there will be a ton of these things so I will save my opinions until I am directly in that postion myself.