Doper Parents - Do you send your kids out begging for money?

Let me share three observations:

  1. Tailgate begging - At my Eagles tailgates, a small pack of young girls will usually come down asking for a donation to Whitebread Junior High softball so that they can travel to some championship tournament. Now this seems innocent enough you realize that you are effectively sending your 13-14 year old daughters to a park in Philadelphia to ask a rather large collection of ill-mannered drunks for cash.

  2. Traffic Begging - Quite often, when I pull up to a stoplight, including tonight, there is a pack of girls and boys walking through the traffic asking motorists to drop coins in their coffee can for some cause. These are usually in high traffic areas and there is some danger considering the number of speeders and red light runners.

  3. Bikini Car Wash - Every summer, the young women from Whitebread High School station themselves in various locations around the area holding car washes to raise money for whatever. Of course, they want to have fun with the water and they wear their swimsuits. Considering problems with sex crimes and abductions, I am not sure that allowing one’s teenage daughter to offer her wares to complete strangers without adult supervision is necessarily a good idea. But what do I know?

How much cash do these kids raise on an average outing? Wouldn’t it be easier to write a check to the school or charity and let the kids saty home? I don’t have kids myself (that I am aware of) but my best friend just writes a check for his daughter so she doesn’t have to. In fact, he said if he ever saw the kid doing any of these three things, there wouldn’t be a hole deep enough to bury his ex-wife.

So do you send your kids out into the streets looking for money? Am I just being a prude?

School fundraisers are meant to give kids practice working.

“If you all work hard, you get to go to San Francisco when you graduate!”

I think that the whole “run around and beg” or “run around and sell cookies” things don’t actually live up to that goal. But probably most parents think it’s just sooo cute that their kids are out doing stuff.

Now, if they actually had the kids cooking the cookies and selling them, I’d be a bit more impressed. But ah well.