Does anyone else get annoyed by children begging for money for their school?

I hate that schools think it’s OK to send children out.

I suspect the blame is more to the parents than the children. Surely they aren’t there alone?

It must be something happening in your part of the world. I can’t remember seeing kids begging for money for their school without selling stuff around here.

I don’t really see this happening in my area.

Even when I was in elementary school, my district put heavy regulations on how schools were permitted to launch fundraising programs. If kids were going to sell candy, they had to do so with a parent and only to people they knew, such as family, family friends, parents’ co-workers, etc (parents were clearly the ones selling the candy and not the kids.)

In high school, clubs were required to report any fundraising. They were not allowed to do off-site fundraising (such as car washes.) It made it difficult for underfunded campus programs to make any money, but it encouraged us to be creative and be safe.

I am far more likely to walk out and see an adult solicitor than a child. And they are far pushier.

Yes. It’s always shitty candy and I feel bad if I don’t buy something. Little pushers.

We went to Wal-Mart a few weeks ago and some obnoxious kids asked us to donate money for their softball team. Once we declined and passed them up, my husband said, “If you’re blind or dying of cancer, I’ll give you money. Fuck your softball team.” Needless to say, he was pretty annoyed by it.

I think anyone collecting money outside of stores is annoying, even Girl Scouts selling cookies.

Do you suppose this could possibly be related to drastic cuts in school funding? to teacher layoffs, teachers paying for school supplies out of their own pockets, and students’ parents being asked for specific contributions such as reams of paper and boxes of tissues?

Maybe what it’s teaching kids is (a) that their society doesn’t value education and (b) that grownups are rude and stingy. (A thing doesn’t have to be true in order for them to think it.) But never mind, soon enough they’ll learn that they don’t have to get a job in order to be supported.

It doesn’t annoy me because I have a child who sells things for school, softball and Girl Scouts. I know how it feels to be the parent of these children. I hate being asked to sell these things, but this is how many schools and after school programs get their money for extracurricular activities. At least we have something to sell. I’ve never seen children begging for money without anything to give for it.

My child has manners when she sells. She’s not pushy.

My niece’s school sells chocolate covered almonds. I have no problem buying those. :) I pass when they try to sell magazine subscriptions, though.

In a university town, Frosh Week is when the newbs are out collecting money (at intersections). I give a few bucks. I used to be one those newbs.

I give money to young army cadets when they’re outside of grocery stores. I get an apple in return. :)

My son’s school sent a let home saying they don’t want to do catalogue sales or fundraisers… so would we kindly write them a check for $50? Remember it’s for your children!

That bugs me, because I remember enjoying the sales contests. I won a Walkman one year. Now, everyone is a winner and the whole school gets an ice cream party.

What really bugs me are the yuppie kids collecting for their sports teams.

Look, if your parents want you to go to Disneyland for a karate tournament with your overpriced taekwondo team, they can pay for it. My spare change is going to a gallon of milk. That’s why I’m at the grocery.

Oh, and Frosh Week (Orientation Week), the money is collected for Cystic Fibrosis research. This is across Canada.

It’s all good. :)

I get annoyed by children period.
I even get annoyed by children that ask what time it is.

Yes yes yes. One supermarket in particular has school kids at the end of each checkout. They are normally in pairs, one holds a bucket for cash, the other wants to pack your bags. I hate it with a passion.

I also hate that the taxpayers won’t vote for decent schools funding, and then complain when the schools have to resort to closing neighborhood schools and doing away with other valuable services.

From August through the beginning of December there will not be a single weekend that our local (good) carwash doesn’t have kids (sports/scouts/drill team etc) pandering for money via drying off cars. There’s no way to avoid them here.

This has been going on for about 30+ years in my locale and is not a new thing due to budget cuts.

On top of this they sell oranges, grapefruit, wreaths, wrapping paper, candy/chocolates, on & on it goes.

When I went to this same district both my best friend’s parents & my mother would ask how much to contribute vs having us go out and hock goods. In some cases it wasn’t allowed for us to not participate in the selling so we’d do the least amount possible.

@YARNLADY It currently costs taxpayers in my locale approximately 13K per student. I homeschool my son (2e gifted) for a fraction of that cost per year (less than 1K).

I highly disagree with the premise that there is a lack of funding.

A lack of common-sense spending per student I’ll agree with.

A lack of funding???? No way.

@SpatzieLover While I do agree that districts don’t always have the students’ best interest in mind when allocating spending, especially since my high school spent thousands of dollars on an AstroTurf field and nearly annihilated the fine arts department in the process, but California is definitely not providing enough funding for our schools. It’s always the first department to receive heavy cuts. Tuition for state universities has skyrocketed in the last four years and many of the K-12 schools in my area are really struggling.

Wow… Blaming the victim(s)?

Only in the way @Headhurts says, insisting they pack your bags at the checkout.
They’re even worse than me, tinned stuff packed on top of bread, bottles sticking out all over, the bags end up looking like a fucking octopus is trying to escape.

Who is the victim @whitenoise?

@muppetish I don’t reside in California. However we have a lot of nonsensical distribution of funds here in my state, as well. It’s why I always fully educate myself on who I’ll be voting in to the open school board seats. I also go to meetings (even though I don’t have a student enrolled in the district) to fight against spending on “things” vs. teachers/curriculum/students.

I find it very annoying that schools do this. Especially when they are selling overpriced things I don’t need. Enough already. I don’t want to eat more candy, my arteries are clogging already, or buy gift wrap, I rarely wrap, or any other crap thing they sell. As far as begging, well, in a way I prefer to give $20 directly to the cause than pay $20 for the crappy giftwrap and only $10 goes to the school. Still, making these children beg, stand in front of grocery stores, go door to door, have parents hit up all their friends and relatives etc, I don’t like it at all.

The only time I wasn’t very bothered was my cousin’s school sold gift cards; you chose from a list of many well known retailers and restaurants; and they received 5% back I think. I bought something like $300 in GC cards I could use right away. I think it was Lowe’s and Target?

A friend of mine used to organize fund raisers for the private school her children went to, and many parents would have rathered just give a check than have to show up at an event.

@JLeslie I was with my daughter when she was selling GS cookies and we had several people just donate the $4 instead of buying the cookies. Many of them mentioned they couldn’t eat the cookies because they are diabetic, but they wanted to support the girls. I thought that was very sweet.

It’s the entitlement culture. Blame socialist liberal propaganda for it. The kids just go out and expect handouts for nothing—taking the fruits of other people’s labour.

They never come to my house any more. Not since the incident.

@jonsblond A lot of people look forward to the GS cookies every year. My experience is the GS’s aren’t pushy anymore, they just set up and let the business roll in.

@SpatzieLover
I think underfunded schools are.

A few years ago the school my son attended dropped the fundraising and started asking for $20 per student. I much preferred that.
When he was in 6th grade his school had all the students selling Little Ceasars pizza kits. He sold well over $500 worth. The school got a whopping $50 of the money. That’s was the first and last time we did that.