Happy Fatherhood Friday everyone. Join the "rush" to visit of all the other great bloggers over at dad-blogs.com.
At the age of 5, Big Brother is already pledging a fraternity: Kappa Gamma Nu.
But you probably know KGN by it's other name, KinderGardeN.
Now, I wasn't in a frat, but it sure seems like Big Brother is being "hazed" in a way, so far this year.
And by "hazed", I mean Mom-E and Dad-E are asked to buy or send something about every week.
The school is always sending notes home, "Please have your child bring in..."
This has included things like:
-50 cents for ice cream on Friday.
-2 apples for Johnny Appleseed Day
-Some kind of item for an Animal Rescue project
-Donations for the teacher's Christmas present (already)
-A "sweet treat" for teacher appreciation day
-An afternoon snack for 20 children once a month
-$20 for school field trips
All of this is coupled with the fact that Mom-E volunteered to sew seat covers for each child in the class (to store pencil boxes, etc.) The teacher told Mom-E to buy the materials, make them, and she'd reimburse her for what she spent. No other specifiers or instructions.
Mom-E bought the fabric (40% off), stayed up to all hours on many nights, and in total spent about $70 ($3.50/child). I didn't think that was too bad. There's no way you could buy something in a store for that price.
And then when Mom-E turns in the receipts, the teacher takes up a collection (of course: Please send in donations for seat covers), and we get an envelope for $40 with a note saying "is that okay?"
Well, it would be if you said you'd reimburse her up to $40.
(Guess what the teacher is getting for Christmas from us...SEAT COVERS. :)
When it's late and Mom-E and I are really tired, we can't help but extrapolate these requests. If they're asking for this stuff in the first 6 weeks, what's it going to be like next spring?
Some ideas:
1. Please have your child bring in a goat (already trained).
2. Together with your child, please choreograph a ballet for Monday.
3. Please send $250 for a plane ticket for your child (field trip with the goat).
4. A Dolce & Gabbana handbag for the teacher's birthday.
5. Lobster dinner for all children in the class (flown in fresh from Maine).
Can't wait for "rush" to be over. And neither can our wallets. But I have a funny feeling we're just getting started.
Hey, anybody want to by some Otis Spunkmeyer cookies? Big Brother
Have a good weekend,
Busy-Dad-E
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I'm laughing out loud..this is crazy and hilarious! I would say $30.00 for the teacher's Christmas gift is waaay tooo much, so that should do it for the rest of the year. ($70.00-$40.00)Is there a room mother who is dreaming up half of this stuff?? I think they need to calm it down...this is just kindergarten for heaven sake.
ReplyDeleteNot even refunding fully for the materials after hours of hard work really isn't on!
ReplyDeleteI know....its CRAZY! Imagine those parents who don't have the capacity to send half their salary to the school. Mind you that you spend already a lot of money on school supplies, uniforms(or clothing), plus school pictures and everything else under the book. I know a lot of people don't like uniforms, but I am so happy that Kaitlyn's school started the new policy on uniforms...to me its cheaper than buying a whole new wardrobe. Rosi
ReplyDeleteMy wife is a teacher but on top of that we are very frugal...We don't like to constantly spend, spend, spend, so she wouldn't ask her kids to do it either. She's already spent about $200 out of pocket for stuff in the classroom. It is getting much much harder for teachers to get supplies and necessaries for the schools though these days. And bound to get even worse.
ReplyDeleteHopefully, your list gets a little smaller in the very near future.
Wow, the whole seat cover thing really ticks me off. You were not only told tha tyou'd be reimbursed, but Mom-E put all of that time and effort into them on top of getting the supplies with quite a discount. Imagine if she had paid full price? I don't think I could let that one go. I'm pretty sure I'd send a note back saying "no, that's not okay, I'll except the next $30 when your pay check arrives". I know teachers don't always have the best salaries, but neither do a lot of other very important and hard working professionals. Its not fair to take advantage of parents' time and money! love, aunt-e
ReplyDeletethere's the rub: the teachers don't have any money in the school budget, parents are struggling to make ends meet, but we're expected to foot the bill for every school thing that comes up. my girls did have a teacher for 5th grade (yes, they had the same teacher 2 yrs apart), who understood this and always contributed some of the funds or items herself for parties, class activities, some school supplies, etc.
ReplyDeleteright now we have 6th grade science camp that we're spose to fundraise for. but we just said that we weren't going to buy any of that stuff or sell it. we'll just pay the price of the camp whatever it is.
p.s. i have an ff up suprisingly at ramblings. lol
ReplyDelete