Annoyed with children fund raising (student, teach, money, younger)
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Not be argumentative but how is it not? Funding a child's' upbringing and funding one's retirement is the individual's responsibility not neighbors & strangers. In fact, funding a child's upbringing is a clear choice as everyone has the choice whether to have kids or not & as we all realize many do not consider whether they can truly afford to have kids. Funding one's retirement is much less of a choice since we are all going to get too old too work and social security will not be enough to support elderly recipients but again it is not the neighbors and stranger's responsibility any more than donating for local kids. The difference is people see a cute little kid and are guilted into giving vs having an old wrinkled person showing up at the door asking for retirement dollars.
The thing I am appreciative of this forum conversation as I have been able see this from the parents point of view and have found the practice even more disturbing than originally thought. I had no idea outside co.s were creating this "sales culture" for their own profit and that schools were actively promoting and to some degree exploiting the children with these fundraising activities. Disgusting!
As much as I don't care for it since I know it irks some people, I chaperone my son once a year around the neighborhood to do popcorn fundraising for cubscout and now boyscout. Sure I can probably just write a check to pay for his earned portion but that defeats the purpose of him working hard for it. It's a once-a-year event and I definitely would not try to push it on family members or co-workers as I know some parents does because it makes them feel obligated.
FWIW with neighbors, there's no obligation and a simple "No thank you" will suffice. He won't be sad or mad, just don't be mean or give the dirty look as if he just killed your pet. I tell him every 10 No's will get him closer to the next Yes so just think of it as one less visit until the next sale. I see it as a good lesson putting in some hard work and that money does not come easy. He's also learning that he's going to run into a lot of No's in life before he succeed so get used to it and learn to approach people and come up with a good line.
I've seen him first started out as a shy cubscout to now a confident boyscout that will look people in the eye and chat with the neighbor as he makes the sales. I used to have to handle the money when he was a cub but now he does all the work of selling, tracking the houses, paperwork, collecting and tally up the sales and manage the delivery completion. That's some good organization skills learned for an 8th grader I think. He earns enough from those annual fundraising to pay for his own annual dues and maybe get half the cost off his summer camps. Again, sure I can pay for it all but this way he has some skin in the game doing what he likes.
These days with all the kids getting into troubles, supporting your local neighborhood kids doing some good isn't such a bad thing. Remember that it's fundraising, it's not a good "deal" to pay $10 for a bag of popcorn you can get at the store for $2. He'll be just as happy to take $1 donation. A simple "No thank you" is perfectly fine as well. Our advance apology for having wasted 2 minutes of your time.
Thanks hokiepoke for that post- I am all for teaching kids financial literacy as it is very much needed in our society. I personally try to be as polite as possible when being approached but unfortunately, I feel if your son does encounter a mean person or an angry look from door to door calling that is part of the real world & yes maybe this is a lesson for your son to realize at a young age if he truly enjoys this type of sales or will work harder in school to not have a profession as of such in life.
FWIW with neighbors, there's no obligation and a simple "No thank you" will suffice. He won't be sad or mad, just don't be mean or give the dirty look as if he just killed your pet. I tell him every 10 No's will get him closer to the next Yes so just think of it as one less visit until the next sale. I see it as a good lesson putting in some hard work and that money does not come easy. He's also learning that he's going to run into a lot of No's in life before he succeed so get used to it and learn to approach people and come up with a good line.
HAHA! "As if he just killed your pet"!!!
We had a Boy Scout ring our bell the other day selling wreath$. I sent my husband to answer because I hate saying no. My husband returned, and I asked him, "What did you say?" He said, "I said no." When I said I couldn't do that, my husband asked me if I'd ever sold door-to-door. Nope. He said, "Well, I did. And I will tell you from experience that 90% of people say no." And then he went onto describe how his experiences (he is an Eagle Scout) taught him just what you described. Even the nos are a good life lesson.
Last edited by LookingForEden; 10-24-2017 at 08:22 AM..
Does anyone else think it is borderline rude to have kids going door to door asking for money for whatever school need? The whole concept of parents sending (accompanying them) kids out asking neighbors/ strangers for money seems quite obnoxious- first of all, if you choose to have kids & you want them to be able to participate in activities then simply write a check for the child's portion, do not go around asking neighbors to carry the burden. I do not feel the child is gaining any lesson or sales experience in this activity since this is not real world as many including myself simply see what spare cash that is in the wallet & simply give it knowing this is a child and they did not truly have a say in this activity. Maybe the experience is in future panhandling.
The thing that disturbs me is that these activities occur in nice neighborhoods where the parents can afford it- I would be much more willing to give if it was a struggling family needing school supplies because they cannot afford it. Just curious if I am alone in thinking this or does anyone else think the door to door asking for money is wrong?
OK. It's annoying. Granted.
You can choose to not answer the door when they come calling. You can choose to answer the door, and tell them you're not interested. You can choose to buy a "No soliciting" sign, and stick it in your window.
It's not a huge deal. And there are plenty of people who are happy to support the schools, and the cute kids who come around. You're making much ado about nothing.
Seriously what a bunch of cranks in this topic. Jeez. Do you grumpies think we parents like going door to door? We do it because we don't have much of a choice (i.e. Girl Scouts). My daughters an introvert but she still musters up the courage to ring strangers doorbells. Cut her some slack. You have two options don't answer the door or say no thanks. And or follow that up with a grouse post on cd. Trust me she won't be hurt by either action.
I open the door and politely say "no thank you." Unless it's Girl Scout cookies. Then I say HECK YEAH!
I know parents don't enjoy fundraising but it'd be super awesome if they paid attention to someone's "no soliciting please" sign. That's supposed to keep this from happening in the first place.
I used to sell girls scout cookies.. in those days it really was a morale boosting activity to muster up the courage and politely ask for support for our troop, and keeping track of the cookies and sales on the sheet.. 99.9 % of neighbors were fully supportive and nice.
When my daughter was in grade school they were given a little suitcase of candy bars to fundraise, there weren't any problems or angry grouchy people, most people bought at least one candy bar, some bought several..she felt proud taking her suitcase around and afterwards received a stuffed animal dognwith a ribbon for supporting her school.
What annoys the hell out of me is the parents, usually seem to be Moms, who speak for the kid and are demanding or downright loud and pushy about it. A few years ago I was walking towards entrance of a store where there were a couple pre teen age Girl Scouts, not six year olds... the mom of one of the girls hollered out to me without the Girl Scout having a chance to approach me "hey!! Wanna buy some cookies? Come on!! Only five bucks- support the girls!!!" The pre teen age girl just stood here while her mom kept yelling out to approaching shoppers. I did not buy any because of that- and she called out "not gonna support us??!!" I just kept walking.
On a slightly different but related issue is so many stores now, when you go to swipe your card, have a pop up on the debit card reader asking if you will donate to whatever cause. I can silently choose to or not, but what gets on my nerves a little is when the occasional cashier tries to get you to do so.. the other day at a store the cashier asked me if I wanted to donate to this cause... I politely said no thanks, and instead of respecting that answer she tried to bargain with me offering that I could "at least round up to the nearest dollar"-- iow my purchase was $5.43 and she then twice tried to get me to go ahead and pay an even 6 so that the change would go towards the cause. Ask once, customer politely declines, then say ok thank you and let it go at hat. Trying to bargain for other ways to get me to donate - what about a little change? All you have to do is round up, felt intrusive and rude.
I used to sell girls scout cookies.. in those days it really was a morale boosting activity to muster up the courage and politely ask for support for our troop, and keeping track of the cookies and sales on the sheet.. 99.9 % of neighbors were fully supportive and nice.
When my daughter was in grade school they were given a little suitcase of candy bars to fundraise, there weren't any problems or angry grouchy people, most people bought at least one candy bar, some bought several..she felt proud taking her suitcase around and afterwards received a stuffed animal dognwith a ribbon for supporting her school.
What annoys the hell out of me is the parents, usually seem to be Moms, who speak for the kid and are demanding or downright loud and pushy about it. A few years ago I was walking towards entrance of a store where there were a couple pre teen age Girl Scouts, not six year olds... the mom of one of the girls hollered out to me without the Girl Scout having a chance to approach me "hey!! Wanna buy some cookies? Come on!! Only five bucks- support the girls!!!" The pre teen age girl just stood here while her mom kept yelling out to approaching shoppers. I did not buy any because of that- and she called out "not gonna support us??!!" I just kept walking.
On a slightly different but related issue is so many stores now, when you go to swipe your card, have a pop up on the debit card reader asking if you will donate to whatever cause. I can silently choose to or not, but what gets on my nerves a little is when the occasional cashier tries to get you to do so.. the other day at a store the cashier asked me if I wanted to donate to this cause... I politely said no thanks, and instead of respecting that answer she tried to bargain with me offering that I could "at least round up to the nearest dollar"-- iow my purchase was $5.43 and she then twice tried to get me to go ahead and pay an even 6 so that the change would go towards the cause. Ask once, customer politely declines, then say ok thank you and let it go at hat. Trying to bargain for other ways to get me to donate - what about a little change? All you have to do is round up, felt intrusive and rude.
Yes, this annoys me too. And where I live, there's Girlscouts parked in front of SEVERAL stores, so you're getting bombarded often. And yeah...sometimes the noise level is stressful...cause...kids. LOL
Seriously what a bunch of cranks in this topic. Jeez. Do you grumpies think we parents like going door to door? We do it because we don't have much of a choice (i.e. Girl Scouts). My daughters an introvert but she still musters up the courage to ring strangers doorbells. Cut her some slack. You have two options don't answer the door or say no thanks. And or follow that up with a grouse post on cd. Trust me she won't be hurt by either action.
Right- bunch of old grumps huh? Sure its a pain, buts it almost a ritual all kids have to go through at some point. I remember going door to door as a kid collecting money for little league. Hated it, but we did it.
Just say no, or I gave yesterday, if you feel that way. The alternative to a lot of these fundraisers is for the parents to write much bigger checks, which isn't possible for everyone.
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