Fundraising Rant

I am not a fan of fundraising. I never liked doing it when I was in high school/middle school and I don't like having to buy over-priced crap from your child so they can get .40 on the dollar to go to Timbuktu or pay for the senior class trip.

Our neice (Zippy's brother's child from a previous relationship who will be starting kindergarten in the fall - yes, you read that right, she is not even in school yet) just sent us a fundraising thing today. We are supposed to buy a magazine for some reason - what the money is being used for is not mentioned. I told Zippy if they were raising money to send her to boot camp (she is the definition of a little shit), I would gladly send her $100.

We left Baba's previous day-care because this for-profit day-care wanted us to fundraise to build a $6000 screen to put over the playground.

I have one child. I fully understand that I am to feed, clothe, and provide shelter to said child. Extras are my responsibility. If I want my child to be in the band and go march through the jungles of Africa tooting his horn, then I will pay for it (if you want to send a check for the send Baba to Abu Dhabi Fund, feel free). Please don't ask me to pay for your child to do stuff. Pay for your own kid to go.

I fully support scholarships, however. I will gladly donate money to a good, quality charity that uses the money for good, rather than evil, but please don't ask me to buy junk that I don't need. I don't understand why, if I cared to donate to a school or a particular kid, I can't just write a check to the school/kid. Why do I have to buy a candy bar or a magazine?