My Beef with What the Schools Expect These Days

Beef #1: FUNDRAISERS

What ever happend to the $1.00 candy bar?
Did it get lost in the shuffle?
Is it not sophisticated enough for today's children fundraisers?

Brook (who is in Kindergarten) was sent home with a large white envelope filled with brochure after brochure of useless, and some useful items that were all super overpriced and an embarrassment to even show to your friends and family. Since the school discourages door to door sales who is left to sell to..friends and family, who also have kids, who also have fundraisers.

I certainly don't need any more wrapping paper. I stocked up on 12/26 and have about 3 dozen rolls to use up before I purchase from fundraising brochure
number 3 & 1/3rd, and all my candy dishes are full.

As an incentive there is a poster sized flier showing your child what he/she could win if they sell 200+ items.
There was a PlayStation 2, an i Pod Shuffle, a digital camera and so much more. I have to say it was enticing until we scanned through the "selling" brochure.
I do not think there was an item under $10.00.

So I ask my husband to look through the brochures and see if he can sell any of this stuff at work. He looks it over and notices a rather nice looking closet organizer, what man could resist that?
"Look honey, its only $14.95"
I say, "Yeah, I can get that in Stop & Shop for $5.99 if you really want it."

Face it, in this economy, good cause or not, I don't want to burden anyone with my kid's fundraiser-guilt-purchase.

So in a silent protest, I threw it away and justified that with joining the PTA and volunteering in the library once a week.

Beef #2: SCHOOL SNACK

I thought Pre-K was tough, but Kindergarten is unreal.

I feel really bad for the "food allergy" children, always having to worry about all the food that goes in their mouths and if they are safe to eat.
Alerting everyone of such allergies, a list of items were sent home and a few things on it were new for me, this is what it said:


YOUR CHILD'S CLASSROOM HAS BEEN DESIGNATED A PEANUT-FREE AND NUT-FREE CLASSROOM.
The allergy can be life-threatening.

OMG, this is some scary shit.

*Foods to Avoid Completely:
Peanuts
Peanut butter
Peanut oil
Peanut flour (there is such a thing?)
Arachis Oil (same a peanut oil) why the fancy name then?
Nut butters (peanut butter sandwich coookies)
Tree Nuts
Ground Nuts
Mixed nuts (uh, I thought all nuts were already classified)
Artificial nuts (what? if it isn't a real nut why is it on the list?)
Beer nuts (hello, they are 5-11 years old here)
Monkey nuts (I bet the monkey is relieved)
Nut pieces (see Ground Nuts)
Goobers candies (I preferred raisenettes growing up myself)
Nu-Nut flavored nuts (with what I am afraid to ask)
Mandelonas (Peanuts soaked in almond flavor) The poor mans almond?
All baked goods containing nuts (that is what...EVERYTHING)
Chocolate (don't tell the girls this)
Egg Rolls
Marzipan
Nougat
Sunflower Seeds
Enchilada sauce
Chili
African, Chinese, Indonesian, Mexican, Thai and Vietnamese Dishes (I am so upset that I cannot send her in with nachos, egg rolls and a tub o' marzipan)

Whew.

My beef isn't with the food allergies, that cannot be helped, it is with the snack list and what we as parents are expected to bring in for snack.
Their are 21 children in the class (which translates as 2 dozen of everything) whom we have to provide snack for, in an alphabetical rotation, for a week.
Yeah, a week's worth of snacks for 2 dozen!

This = a WTF?

Why can't each parent be responsible for their child's snack? I understand the whole concept of a "community classroom" but with all the food allergies why would you even trust that every parent would even read the list and bring in some Ritz Peanut Butter Bits in error?

My week is the week of October 20th.
I have no choice but to comply, but its still worth bitching about.

Thankfully, the Costco bucket O'Goldfish and pretzles are approved snacks as well as fresh fruit!

*The source of the above information compiled from the following sources, www.foodallergy.org and www.aaaai.org