How do you handle these in your families? Do you sell to family and friends? Do you buy things yourself? Just curious on what you all do with these....

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Shaking in my boots (well, if I was wearing them in the middle of summer!), but glad to be back!

I casually mention to our family that if they are interested in whatever the product is that the our dd's school has them fora fundraiser. Now we have two dd's so it will be double. Usually I purchase things from the fundraiser for xmas presents etc.

We live in a VERY small town so the whole town is selling the same things. We DO NOT send our kids door to door. Everybody else's kids have things to sell too. Most people wouldn't give money just by itself so fundraisers are good in that way. They get somethign back and so does the school. Good luck, I have NO idea what I would do with four, I don't even know what I'm going to do with two!!! Buy one from each I guess.

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~Home is where your heart is~

Well, I just have the one in school but we usually will buy a few things from him for xmas presents and such. We are lucky though as we have both sets of grandparents here in town the 4 of them offer to take the fundraiser to work w/ them to help us raise money. This way we dont have to do alot of door to door stuff-which we wouldnt necessarily do in our neighborhood anyway.

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SAHM to Elias 3/00, Camdyn 7/03 and Teagan 5/08

This is a sore spot with me. I don't feel kids should have to sell to raise funds. Back to the old rant: what are our taxes for?? I'd rather do a bake sale or something than peddling the overpriced things. My son's school doesn't want the kids to go door-to-door. This means, hey, feed off friends and family! My SIL emails everyone when her daughter has stuff to sell, and I just find that a bit unseemly. We feel obligated, same as I always did when approached (constantly) back before children when I was working. I would probably feel differently if my family was close and well-off. I thought it was bad enough having the high school kids do it for trips and yearbooks, etc., but introducing it into elementary schools just hits a nerve. One huge difference, however, is the Scholastic Book offering. The books really are well priced and the classroom benefits. The wrapping paper they sell thru Sally Foster is great quality, but so expensive. I just don't think it's fair to kids like mine with no family nearby, vs the ones who do, because they get all the nice little prizes. I'll invest $100, but not $1200! OK. Off my soapbox.

I agree with that I would rather do a bake sale or something like that rather than fundraisers, but my kids school only does 2 main fund raisers. One in the fall, selling candy bars and the other is selling tickets to get longenberger baskets in the spring. I don't go broke having to support them. I just wish they would stop with the prizes and all that, it usually is the same kids winning and makes other kids feel bad since they didn't sell as much.

Aside from the Entertainement books, I despise fundraisers. And when it comes to Entertainment books, the kids alternate years, Caitlin sells one year & Will the next. We sell only to family members that have asked for them. Guess Aaron will be bringing home something from Kindergarten this year too...blah.

I don't like fundraisers either. The things they sell are overpriced and bad quality. Last year I picked out a few things and let my kids "buy" them for me for Christmas. The boys grandparents did buy a few things, but one that my grandma, who's on a fixed income picked out was pathetic when she got it and I was embarraced. Now both my boys will be in school so I will divide my order in half and hope there is something inexpensive for the grandmas to pick out. I don't agree with making the kids sell anything. BTW: My girlfriend has 4 kids and she just sends them back in and doesn't have her kids do it at all. I don't blame her.

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The mighty oak started out as a nut that held its ground.

I just remembered one where my husband bought a Scooby Doo art set with paints and cookie dough from someone at his work one year. When we got it, the paints had mold on them and the cookie dough was horrible and stale. He refused to do anything about it.

Oh boy! Thank you for making it known that I am not alone in my despise for fund raisers. Seems everyone I talk to around here is all for them. I have 3 kids in 3 different schools. (elementary, middle, and Sr. high) They all bring home this crap at least 4 or 5 times a year. The kids are absolutely NOT to go door to door so that leaves the selling to the parents IMO, and they always list some prize incentive to get the kids to sell, sell, sell. But it isn't just the schools any more. Any organization that kids are involved in have some fund raiser that needs the kids to labor for.

What really ticks me off are the few that are making participation mandatory. Youngest DS plays football and we pay $100 for him to do so, it is up to us to buy his practice uniform and shoes, then there are the extras like shirts and hats for the parents and of course pictures of the team etc. This turns into a hefty price tag PDQ, but the icing on the cake is their fund raiser which is to sell popcorn. They give you 1 of 2 options. Either sell or buy out. If you choose to sell you cut them a check for $96 and sell 48 bags at $2 a piece to recoop your money. What you don't sell you get to eat because unsold bags cannot be returned. On the other hand you can cut them a check for $50 and buy out, leaving you with nothing to sell and you are just out the money. The league gets $50 for each kid as their money raised. And d@mned if they don't make sure they get it too. During registration time this year, (I am on the booster club and help with registering kids) I had several parents tell me that they would just buy out as they had other fund raisers to do too and didn't want to burden their friends with all the selling. IMO, skip the others, and recoop what you can.

All these fund raisers leave me to question what we are teaching our kids. How to be salesmen and little con artists?

We skip all fund raisers in this house that require any kind of selling on our part, except the football one. When the kids bring the stuff home, it hits the trash can right away, unless the kids decide to take the inititive to do it 100% on their own. Which they don't, they always try to con mom or dad into doing it for them so they can get the "great" prize. Besides who do you sell to when you don't have a lot of family in your town and every school in the city is running the exact same fund raiser?

Our schools don't do the traditional fund raisers. The PTO sells school spirit items (t-shirts, blankets, pompom) at school and at football games. Our girls from K-6 can pay $35 each and the high school cheerleaders teach them a simple routine and they perform at halftime at 2 highschool games during football season. The girls love it and the parents enjoy seeing their girls perform. They always have about 400 girls participate so this is always a big hit. Not only do they get tthe $35 but also the admission into the games. On the nights on the games there is a tail gate party. The PTO BBQ's and have games set up. We have dough raising every Thursday. You order pizza from Domino's and let them know you are ordering for the school and 10% of all sales go to the school. We have two carnivals during the year and that is it. I love participating in these fundraisers. I don't feel obligated or like my kids like my kids are being exploited making money for the school.

I would suggest to the school or PTO that they explore ways to raise money without exploiting the kids.