Friday, October 3, 2014

School Fundraisers And Why They Make Me Angry



Guys?

The fundraiser at Natalie's school is OVER.

No, we didn't participate. I know, bad me. But here's the thing: the school wanted the kids to sell candy bars. When you live on base, you aren't supposed to go door to door. It says so in the lease.

However.

HOWEVER.

Most of the kids came from parents who did not read their lease or decided, "Meh. I'll pick and choose what rules I want to follow," because we had so many kids knocking on our doors trying to sell the damn candy cars.

The first day we had like 5 kids knocking on the door. One even knocked at 830 PM. I'm getting old, so 830 is LATE to me. I sort of threw open the door in anger and made the child jump. I probably looked like this:



I was not amused! "Where are your parents? Why are you ringing doorbells at 830? My kids go upstairs at 8 and now they're going to be all, 'Why does this kid get to be downstairs and we're sent upstairs?'" 

I WANTED to say all of that.

I didn't because you see, when you live on base, you have to be polite, otherwise rumors fly quickly about the cranky lady who told off a child. Then the parents might not let their kids play with mine and there would be awkward silences whenever I passed said parents. Mutterings might occur. "That's the lady who shouted at my poor Constance. She was only trying to help raise money for her school." And then I'd turn around and snap, "CONSTANCE isn't supposed to knock on doors and sell stuff on base!" because like Anne of Green Gables, my mouth can get the better of me. 

Look, if kids want to sell crap, they can set up a table in front of their houses. It is allowed so long as you contact housing beforehand. 

I wish we only were disturbed that one day, but nope, the fundraiser went on for like TWO WEEKS. We seemed to have at least 1-2 kids knocking on our door daily. 

I'm not a total meanie, I did buy TWO candy bars, but after that I was like, "I bought enough." One kid was like, "You can buy more." I went, "My thighs say no. Bye," and shut the door as he tried to speak again.

I don't have time for nonsense.

And don't worry, I will donate directly to the PTA at the school. I just don't do fundraisers. 

Since no one seems to follow the rules on base, I'm thinking I need this sign:


You can buy it from Etsy here.

I can almost bet I'll still have kids knocking on my door because rules don't apply to them these days.

But anyway.

For now, the fundraiser is OVER!

Wait. Spoke too soon. After I finished typing this there was a knock on the door. Now the middle school is doing a fundraiser.

But, we knew the girl who came to the door, and she was polite. Plus she came at a respectable time.

Still. It never ends guys.




34 comments:

  1. That sign! Oh god I have to get that sign! Usually, I let Frank deal with solicitors (at least I did in USA because they don't really go door to door here) since he once managed to get two of them to clean up his apartment.

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  2. ....and this is why i don't answer the door when people knock. instead, i hide behind my shutters and peek outside. if there's no truck that says "canada post" or "UPS", they can fuck off.

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  3. I hate school fundraisers. My step son has one every other week. Not only do they scold the kids if they don't raise enough money EVERY time, last time he raised enough money (because all of his relatives handed him money because we're sick of ticking off the neighbors) that he won the right to a sleep ever at school. That they gave no paperwork on and told the kids (not the parents) about at 2pm on the day before it was scheduled. Which was the day before we were scheduled to go out of town. So we got to explain why he couldn't go and then his teacher had the nerve to say that she guessed we didn't support school functions. I am a pretty reserved woman but I almost told her that I did support 4 letter words, right before she got to hear a whole host of them coming out of my mouth.

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  4. Wow ^^^ that is crazy. I usually do the first one and that is it.

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  5. That sign made me LOL!! I totally need it. I hate fundraisers, too. They are the bane of my existence.-Ashley

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  6. YES! Please get that sign and put it outside. That would be great.
    Also, what parent lets their child go out door to door at 8:30 at night? My parents would hog tie me up if I did that when I was younger...

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  7. I can't stand school fundraisers. I'll donate money, but I will not send my children door to door or bug our family to buy stuff they don't need. I only support girl scout cookies and boy scout popcorn.

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  8. You could just print out that sign and tape it to your front door.

    :)

    Of course they probably can't read either... the school is too busy teaching fundraising and begging instead of English...

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  9. Love the sign! School fundraiser season is upon us around here as well. I've become a bit cynical about the whole fundraiser hoopla since there never seems to be full disclosure of where the money actually goes.

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  10. I am kinda shocked that the kid was a pushy sales person by telling you that you can buy more after you said you already bought some. It sounds like it goes with another commenter's story that the kids get scolded for not making enough.

    It feels like it is a bit too much pressure on the kids and their parents. And the neighborhood.

    I always feel obligated to buy stuff cuz I always want to help the kids but there is always a fundraiser. Always.

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  11. Oops, we missed ours!
    People here were just posting the link online and sharing it on FB. No pressure. It seemed to work!

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  12. I had an argument with my son's daycare director over fundraisers last spring. See, I'm a Northern girl from a family with a TON of food allergies. I'm not going to sell expensive gourmet Southern food/spices. When I got the fund raising slip, I stopped by the director's office and returned it to her and told her we wouldn't be participating, but I'd write her a check as a donation. "What do you mean that you won't participate? Don't you realize that this will benefit your son?" I actually had to explain to crazy lady (who is normally quite nice and reasonable) that she would collect more money from me via donation than if we sold the 10 items they asked us to. Although apparently my donation left a mark because I just got the new fundraising slip and it includes an option to make a donation in lieu of selling items.

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  13. Our school said "no more selling" and I couldn't be happier. This year we are doing this
    http://www.gorunyourrace.com/Event/Event/59

    It's open to any runners who want to do it and it's being managed by a run organization here in town. No door-to-door or begging grandparents to buy candy, nuts or wrapping paper!

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  14. I buy from my grandkids. Period. No one else cause the dang schools should be able to live within a budget like I do! Grrrr. Love your blog. Love

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  15. I need that sign!!! I get hit for fundraisers CONSTANTLY. When my kids were little, I served on the PTA board for years and had to organize more fundraisers than I care to remember. Sooo glad those days are over.

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  16. I hate school fundraisers too. If everyone just gave an amount of money without having to push a lot of junk, the school would get all of the money instead of the companies pushing the junk. That sign is tempting.

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  17. I never understood fundraisers growing up. I had an irrational fear of asking people for money. Since I was a good kid, I was usually able to squeak by without selling anything.

    I have no idea how I will address this when I'm a parent...

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  18. No one has mastered the bitch face like Scarlet!!
    the fundraising - it never ends. all year long. one after the other. and then the book sales. and the photo sales. and the charity drives.

    I'm sorry, I can either purchase all my children's school supplies and hot Friday lunches, OR, contribute to your numerous fundraising efforts. I cannot do both. Choose wisely

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  19. Yeah, I don't have a problem with school fundraising theoretically, but I hate fundraisers that turn kids into door to door salesmen.

    #sitsblogging

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  20. I'm shocked the school condones door to door selling. The school at which I work is VERY clear to the kids when they begin a fundraiser that door to door is not a good idea.

    Of course, then a bunch of parents peddle their kid's fundraisers in the office, but all of those order forms are pretty easy to ignore, unlike a constantly ringing doorbell...

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  21. I hate them in general. And no one ever wants to buy that stuff anyway. If it's not Girl Scout Cookies, don't count me in.

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  22. LOL this was hilarious! I thought I was the only one that hated fundraisers, however I have never seen any kids come to our door for selling - wow, that's guts! and I can see why that would be annoying...sounds like Halloween.

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  23. That sign is great! I feel ya on the fundraiser stuff. We do not partake either!

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  24. Love that sign! I hated when my kids were sent home with the fundraising stuff. I didn't let them go door to door, but I did hit up friends and workmates. It was a real drag and a big pain when the stuff came in and you had to distribute it to everybody. Setting up a table sounds like a much better idea.

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  25. I hate that! When I was in school my parents went to the school and told them to not send any papers home with me that concerned selling things. Luckily we've never really had lots of people who have come knock on our door... I would feel much like you.

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  26. I hate that! When I was in school my parents went to the school and told them to not send any papers home with me that concerned selling things. Luckily we've never really had lots of people who have come knock on our door... I would feel much like you.

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  27. I'm a big rule follower so I don't like that at all- and I don't think I'd do the chocolate bar fundraiser because I'd eat them all. No self control over here

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  28. I made a sign just like that for our door because we had a billion people coming by. NO, just no. Grr!

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  29. One of the good things about having older kids is making them answer the door - I've trained them to say I'm not home - ha! I always hated fundraisers too - I just asked how much money I needed to donate and that was that!

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  30. I'm so glad my kids' schools don't do these! The PTO just asks for straight up money! I think they get more that way than with fundraisers anyway. If anybody knocks on my door after 8:30 they'll be waiting a long time!

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  31. The parents would be telling the kids to go door to door so they clearly don't follow rules either. No wonder kids don't learn anything.

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  32. That sign is awesome but the Scarlet O'Hara clip and placement were even better!

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  33. School fundraising is important as well. But added taxes make it complicated. In that case,
    best crowd fund raising can be helped by making it tax free.

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