Doing right by children costs too much!

[cynatnite]

I'm pissed. I'm a raving and crying lunatic right now. My daughter came home with the form for school pictures. As usual they are higher than last years. My son will probably bring his home, too.

What has me so pissed is that we pay for school supplies, school fees and lunches. That's not counting school clothes since they outgrew last years. Then there's is the pictures. For our little boy, 1st grader, once a month we supply snacks for his class.

He's been begging us for the better part of two weeks to play soccer. We had planned on doing it even though the cost was too high in our minds. He wanted it and it would be good for him.

Hubby's a truck driver and out of the last 14 days, he was sidelined for 6 of those for mechanical problems. When he doesn't drive, he doesn't make money. It's the nature of the beast. We knew that.

What's upsetting is that we want to do right by our children just as any other parent does, but how can we when it cost so fucking much??

If our nation's children were that important they wouldn't saddle the parents with all these costs? I'm so enraged by the fact our kids have to do without this year.

It's true! Doing right by our children costs too much and it shouldn't! My kids should be able to get the same as anyone else's.

I'm pissed and I'm upset over this. It's so fucking unfair that I have to tell my little boy there will be no soccer this year. For a six year old, waiting a year is a lifetime.

[Child_Of_Isis]

1. This is what school has turned into.

Money sucking machines and social climbing for those children whose parents can pay the bill. They use our kids to turn us into "keeping up with the Jones consumer-ites". It destroys us when we can't do it.

[Southpaw Bookworm]

2. Because to do otherwise would be socialism

And we know that's only for those pinkos in Europe.

:sarcasm:

Actually, that gets to the heart of it: If the playing field were level, losers like the Shrub would have to compete against people a thousand times better than him. It's the root of the capitalist system: Those in power write the rules to their advantage to keep certain classes of people down so that they can have a steady supply of worker bees and then use Puritan bullshit about the poor deserving their fate for not working hard enough.

[RedEarth]

3. As far as youth sports are concerned,

the YMCA in our town(and I would guess most towns) offers scholarships to kids who can't afford the sign up fee. If you have a Y in your town, you might want to check it out.

[donco6]

4. Do you qualify for free/reduced lunch?

You can apply through your school. Qualification is based on income and number in household. Schools are required to keep qualification confidential.

[YellerdawgFlorida]

5. I'm sorry

about your husband's mechanical problems....I'm sure the cost of fuel is bad enough!!
The truth is, repubs only care about kids that aren't yet born...after that, they are on their own! "Right to life" ends when one exits the womb.
Good luck...I wish I had some extra bucks to send your way, but unfortunately I am not benefitting from the "booming" economy.
Take care

[progressivebydesign]

6. I hear ya! It boggles my mind how many extra costs we pay.

I have a stepdaughter going into high school. I am shocked at the increased costs with each grade she completes. Kids who are involved at school fare much better in life, so it's hard to say "no" we can't afford it when she wants to do sports or choir or art. Our schools are very good here, and we had to buy very few school supplies on our own, but the other costs of physicals for sports, fees for electives (which are required), and other costs are ridiculous. My stepdaughter does not, luckily, feel she has to have ABercrombie & Fitch or any other designer label, otherwise we'd be screwed when it comes to shopping this year! We're doing discount stores and goodwill!

[spuddonna]

7. Hey, I'm right there with you...

We just got the 'back to school supplies' and spent over $100... This was on stuff like reams of paper, multiple boxes of pencils and several packs of glue sticks. Remember when the school gave that stuff out? And I know the teachers are buying supplies too, because I've run into them at the store, and I have friends who are teachers. One of my friends spent $2000 last year on school supplies for her class! Why is this happening?!

We haven't even started buying the kids clothes, and I'm praying we'll be poor enough to get into one of the clothing drives sponsored by the local PTA groups... :(

We had to pull our kids our of swim classes last spring - too expensive. I'm hoping to be able to scrape together enough to put the kids in some program they like, but I'm not holding my breath at this point.
:pals:

[cynatnite]

8. It's just criminal in my eyes

I know schools have a tough time and have to rely on other ways of getting the money they need. What's bad is these expenses aren't spread through the year...it's at the beginning when we've already spent a few hundred bucks.

I wrote five separate checks for school fees just for our teenager already.

It just seems like parents get the shaft at the beginning of every school year. We have three kids with two still in school. It's not like this is the first year...but over time it's gotten worse.

Our income hasn't changed all that much (another rant), but fees, pictures and everything else has.

If anyone ever tells me how great our kids have it, my head's liable to explode. When the parents with money can sign up their kids for soccer, and the ones without can't, where is the equality? Where is the level playing field? There is no equality for our kids when those who are able can get it and those without the financial means can't...and as a result lose out.

(vented enough today to get most of it out of my system)

[SoCalDem]

9. Have you called AYSO?? If not, call them

They may have a payment plan.. It's been ages since we had a little soccer player, but when he was in AYSO, it was notthat expensive.

Once he was drafted into "club" it got TOTALLY out of hand, but by then he was so in love with the soprt, we had to scrape the $$ together.. The travel was a big part of the problem..

They played in 3 neighboring states and lots of tournaments in our state, and the yearly "fee" was $1100.. and then of course he had to have special order shoes..3 different pair for different turf..and after that came the medical costs (you might actually want to re-think the sports thing :evilgrin:..)

By the time he was a senior in high school he had ankle surgery and knee surgery..:(

I sure don't miss those kid years ..one bit :)