Tired of "fund raisers" using my kids as free child labor

The BBQ Pit
1

So yesterday my kids come home with a package of “fund raisers” for thier school. Thay all got crammed into the auditorium where they had presenters tell the kids how to pressure people into buying magazine subscriptions and their over-priced garbage, promised cheap candy and paltry toys and electronics for high sellers, and told that what they were doing was “helping their school.” Yeah, right.

Looking at the small print, 40% of the proceeds go to the school, while these promotional companies keep the other 60%. Comparing the prices to better quality goods on the market tells me that the companies who are using my children as a cheap marketting labor are not going to be feeling any pinch at all in the “40% donation.”

Mind you, this is in a rather young neighborhood with lots of children. The school has 1400 students and covers roughtly three square miles. The saturation of the market is something I don’t want to imagine. The chances of any of my children selling anything, let alone this overpriced, cheap crap are slim to none.

In spite of the promoters saying they “don’t recommend going door to door,” how else is a child supposed to sell 100 subscriptions so they can get a $10 tape player? Like I would even allow my child to go door to door in today’s day and age!

My six year old boy got all excited about how he would get a “free” pack of Jolly Rancher candies if he filled out the address labels to all his relatives and close family friends with some pathetic “Dear _____, please help me help my school by buying a magazine subscription…” blah, blah, blah.

Not wish to subjugate anyone in this world to such a high pressured sales pitch, especially my parents who are living on Social Security, I explained the situation and told him ‘No.’ The poor kid gets these huge alligator tears welling up in his eyes, the false dreams of toys and candy force fed him by the public school system being dashed.

I hate having to be the bad Dad by having to point out to him what lies he was told! How can an institution supposedly dedicated to learning do this?!? I told him (and all my other kids) I would get him the Jolly Rancher candies by not filling out the address labels to all and sundry.

Seems to have put some oil on the water, but I am furious that any legitimate comapny could engage in such dirty business.

MY CHILD IS NOT A RESOURCE YOUR CAN WORK FOR PENNIES AN HOUR IN WHICH THEY SEE NOTHING BUT DISAPPOINTMENT AND FAILURE.

Sorry, just had to rant.

2

Then don’t let them do it. Refuse to participate. Talk to the principal about how you feel.

I hate these fund raisers too. I never buy them from kids who sell them. I see this as a dangerous activity, and by buying I’m encouraging it to happen more often.

And I don’t let my kids participate.

3

I’m with you Level3Navigator

I have 5 children and I can tell you that when one came home with a fundraiser the others followed suit. Our kids were encouraged not to go door-to-door but to have parents take the fundraisers to work.

My kids felt bad if I didn’t participate. They wanted to be like all the other kids on the block and sell in order to win prizes.
So I would buy one item from each kid (which cost me a fortune) and it was always crap crap crap! I would then take the books to work and just leave the book on my counter in hopes that someone would ask me about it. I didn’t feel right pressuring my co workers to buy when they had their own children to worry about. Not only that but if it wasn’t the school selling crap it was Boys Scouts, Cub Scouts, & Girl Scouts stuff.

One time my son won a Trip to Seaworld for his efforts only to find out that Jane Doe ordered 2 items and it should have shown up as “one order” instead of two so he got cheated out of his Trip because they had to have XX of orders.

Finally I put my foot down and refuse to participate in these programs. My kids got over it. The school has tried to “guilt” me into selling by making me sign a paper that says I will not be participating in this school activity.

It’s bullshit!

4

The worst is the Big Party they throw for Kids Whose Parents Allow Them To Be Whored Out. If they don’t sell enough crap, they can’t go. (They have face painting and mescaline).
I found out a cash donation gets your kid in.
Also bad is them expecting them to take the silly catalogs “to Daddy’s office.”
BTW, I HIGHLY recommend buying the wrapping paper. Measuring by the square inch, it’s cheaper to wrap your present in US currency.

5

That sucks. One thing I really like about my daughter’s school is that the parents organizations have worked really hard to keep that sort of thing to a minimum. Pretty much all our fundraising is done through participatory events (Halloween Carnival, Parents Dinner Dance/Auction) or through donations from the business community. There’s a great program called Escrip, where parents sign up online and a portion of whatever they spend at local grocery and department stores is donated to the school. There are also school nights at local restaurants, where the restaurant will donate to the school if a family has dinner there–all they have to do is bring a flyer along. (These are all family restaurants we might typically go toanyway.)

When the kids are involved, it’s in a constructive way. For example, each class makes a very nice art project that’s sold at the dinner auction. There was also a jogathon last year that raised a surprising amount of money. Yes, the kids had to get subscriptions from family and friends, but every cent of it went to the school. And you were free to just make a donation if you preferred–there was no pressure.

I can see how a school would fall into the trap, though. We have a very dedicated group of parents that is pretty relentless in getting every family involved in some way. That’s really what it takes. We’re all busy, but everyone can do something.

6

Ummm, autz, I don’t let my kids participate. That’s the point. Now my children are going to be blacklisted as “people who don’t support the school,” in spite of the fact that my wife puts in close to 10 hours a week volunteering her time (she is a stay at home mom).

I complained about this last year to the principal (and refused to let my kids participate), and sure enough, things have changed this year: They sent my kids home with more stuff.

I loved the phrase “Whored out,” seal_cleaner. That shoe fits the foot. Is our educational system really so pathetic and cash strapped that they bring in these big marketting companies who are more than happy to exploit the children.

I will no doubt be making a donation in cash like I did last year to “buy back” my kids from this farce…

7

We talked to the principal about this a few years back. It had reached ridiculous levels of pressure on the kids and we were all fed up with it, especially the kids. They liked the parties well enough, but having to compete with the others kids was wearing a bit thin.

All the principal required was a letter to keep on file, basically stating that the kids were not to be asked to participate in fund-raisers of this nature for the remainder of their elementary school careers.

The odd piece of “campaign literature” still makes it way into their backpacks amongst the tons of other things they bring home. We just chuck it out and our kids just tell the other kids that they’re not allowed to participate. End of problem.

8

Another parent here who refuses to let their kid participate in these fundraisers. At the start of every school year I just sign the paperwork excluding him from all fundrasing activities and that’s the end of that. I would rather volunteer my time or money if need be then to have to deal with that crap.

When a fundraiser does come around little milliAmp does get kind of bummmed when all his friends tell him about all these great prizes they are going to get by selling this junk. I just jump in the car with him and drive down to Toys R Us and let him pick out anything he wants. It always comes out cheaper to by the actually prizes than to by the number of items needed to get the prize. It works out for everyone.

9

Think that’s bad? When I was in high school, every year the freshman class had to sell fifteen candy bars for a dollar each-the money going to that class’s senior prom.

Not too bad, except if you didn’t sell them, you didn’t get your report card.

10

I dislike this practice because in my opinion it also helps foster the illusion that schools have enough money. Now, if it’s scouts, or band, or baseball - something that’s not federally funded - I’ll check it out and see if it’s worth doing. For the school itself, though? No.

I sent my kids to school with three-ring binders, pencils, crayons, markers, glue sticks, paper, erasers, pencil boxes, note cards, folders, scissors, baby wipes, hand soap, and any number of other things. I help them with their homework. I encourage them to read. I try to explain exactly how what they’re learning WILL matter when they’re grown-ups.

I am not, however, a convenience store operator.

11

Face painting and mescaline?

Damn, now I wish I had sold those chocolate ingots in grade 6.

12

When I was a teacher I refused to conduct these scams. It kept me from getting some materials, but I usually found other ways.

13

Are you fucking kidding me? Shit, if they’d pulled that in my school, my father would have been at the school board complaining so fast, they’d all have whiplash (and I wonder where I get my reactive nature from).

I’m going to be a teacher in another year and a half, and I also hate these fundraisers. I know they do them around here, but I’m not sure how prevalent it is in the elementary schools where I’ll be. We did them in high school for marching band a lot, but we also had fundraisers like a craft fair and car wash to raise money. I wonder if I can get fired for refusing for my class to participate in these Fundraisers o’Crap, and offering to set up an actual Fundraiser with the kids, like a bake sale. Hell, everyone likes cookies.

Ava

14

Preview is my friend.

Well, that answers the question in my post:D. So I wouldn’t lose my job for refusing to participate in these when I have my own classroom, would I?

Ava

15

Right now, on the shelf of my cubicle sits a huge tin of un-popped popcorn, sold to me by the ex-VP’s (who at the time was my boss’s boss) son for his boyscout troop fundraiser.

I don’t even really like popcorn.

That’s how. They’re not looking for child labor - they’re looking for parent labor.

16

HAH! It is to laugh.

I was a Girl Scout for 13 years. Every year, people get all sloppy about Girl Scout cookie season. I loved Girl Scouts in general, but I hated those fucking cookie sales. Guess how much the actual Girl Scout troop gets from the sale. No, guess!

12 percent

Yup, that’s right. On a $3.00 box, the troop gets between $0.32 and $0.51. Which is about the cost of delivering the boxes.
The rest goes to pay the salaries of the insane roadblocks they call Council employees. The people with the imagination, heart, and time to keep the organization going and to keep it all about the kids get nuthin’, of course. Oh, and in my old Council, if you didn’t sell cookies, you didn’t get any funding help from the Council at all. It’s sell cookies or else. Check it out.

17

Too bad-I LOVE GS cookies. YUM!!!

I’m not kidding-if you hadn’t sold those candybars, you had to pay for them. I think that’s what happened to me, I had to bring in fifteen bucks so I could get my report card.

Now, they usually withheld your report card for things like library fines and such, but fundraisers? It was fucked up.

18

No report card?

Um… That really doesn’t make sense to these eyes–surely all the dossers who never did any work all term would deliberately not sell the candy bars so they didn’t have to show their parents the bad report!!!

…Or maybe I’ve just been watching too much Simpsons :smiley:

19

I’ll bet this nonsense never happens in Belgium!

My strategy is similar to others. An extra twenty dollars to the PTA with a note stating “thanks but no thanks” and a trip to Barnes & Noble for my young scholars. Win/win for all.

20

One summer long ago I worked in an office of the Boy Scouts. It just killed me that little kids were sending in envelopes of money for stuff they had sold, magazine subscriptions, etc., and these executives were stowed away in paneled offices. (My job was to open the envelopes and prepare the money for deposits.)