Need A $75 Spatula?

Drew stepped in the van yesterday when I picked him up from school, and he excitedly told me, "Mom! We are having a fundraiser at school! If I sell 200 things, I can get an iPod or a flat-screen TV!"

Dear, naive little Drew. He hasn't been in school long enough to know just how much his Momma detests school fundraisers. I detest them for a variety of reasons.

1. The stuff the kids have to sell is JUNK. And it's not just junk. It's over-priced junk.

2. A new tactic the schools now use is to reward the kids who sell just two items with a special assembly. Any student that sells just two items gets to go to a special assembly. If a student doesn't sell any items or sells just one item, he/she stays in the classroom and works while the other students attend said assembly. This happened to us last year, and I think it's pretty crumby.

3. In past years, our kids' school has used the majority of the proceeds from this fundraiser to take all of the students to see a movie. And it costs them over $2000 to take the whole school to a movie - usually a movie half of them have already seen any way. In all fairness, the school has not done this for the last few years. I have been pleased with the all-day school carnival they use the money for. I do hope they continue this in the future.

4. And the main reason I dislike this fundraiser is that the company's spokesman comes and gets the kids all fired up to sell their junk, and I have to be the bad guy to tell my kid he actually won't be getting a flat-screen tv.

Drew and I literally spent hours yesterday debating this fundraiser. He was a determined little guy while he pled his case. He even had Ross trying to join his cause. And I thought, "Silly Ross. You should know this routine by now!"