Donating time, money, or goods to charities and organizations around the word is incredibly important. Progress has been made in so many areas based on the generosity of collective groups of random people. But there comes a time when companies and organizations take things a step further and turn things that should be fun into fundraisers.
My younger daughter attends a private preschool where school uniforms are mandatory Monday through Thursday. The school is raising money for breast cancer awareness and in doing so they are allowing kids to “Wear Pink” or “Wear Jeans” on Wednesdays. But showing solidarity with a color is not enough for the school. Instead, they turned “Think Pink Wednesdays” into a fundraiser.
I have the choice of letting my daughter have an extra free day each week so that she can wear pink or wear her jeans, but this day costs me money. Sure, two dollars is not a lot of money when you pay it once. Over the course of this month there are five Wednesdays, which means I could potentially pay $10 to $50 extra to make sure I don’t have any Mommy Guilt to send my daughter to school in “Think Pink” clothes on Wednesday. And yes, she quickly grasped onto the Think Pink Wednesday concept and was very excited about not needing to wear her uniform twice a week.
This is an “If-Then” situation. “If” you wear pink/jeans to school instead of your uniform “Then” we would like a donation.
I texted my husband about this and he said it was similar at his work. If he wanted to wear jeans to work then he could give a donation to the heart walk and wear jeans.
Now I like to think of “If-Then” situations as mandatories: If the light turns red then I must stop the car, if we run out of milk then I must go to the store to get more, if my child has a boo boo then I will get a bandaid, if I am thirsty then I will get a drink of water.
If I send my child to “Think Pink” day at school then I should not feel guilty if I do not donate money to the school. Trust me, our family donates plenty of time, money, and materials to the organizations that we hold dearest to our hearts. Don’t get me wrong, I am not saying that breast cancer awareness/heart walks are not important (my grandma had breast cancer…I know how important it is). I am just saying….don’t put me in a situation that makes me look like a bad guy if I want to donate my money to another cause.
And yes, I sent my daughter to school today with a donation. The donation was $1 since I had a $1 and a $5 bill and nothing else. Sure enough, my mommy guilt was there for not donating the requested (or was it almost mandated?) two dollars. That mommy guilt would have been there though if I had sent her to school in her uniform. Really, mommy guilt was out to get me today!
Have you seen this near you? Am I overreacting? Do you fear this will happen more and more?
Leandrea is a married mom of two girls, ages 13 and 12, living in Atlanta, GA. She is passionate about helping people save money one coupon at a time. Read more
I agree with you. It’s great for the kids who can bring money but it inevitably leaves some children out.
I dont think that you are overreacting . I think it is wrong to put parents into a situation like that especially when some parents cant afford it and it also puts alot of pressure on the kids because if their parents cant donate then the children cant wear what they want and the children’s parents that can afford to do it tease those that can. I think it should be if you want to donate or can do us then donate but those that cant shouldnt be seperated.It is wrong to make anyone feel guilty.Me paersonaly I wouldnt stand for it but that is me.
Hi, I don’t think you are over reacting at all. Children should not be in an equation for fundraising anyway. There’s a lot of money in cancer, they don’t want a cure anyway. You can google about this and find tons of info on it.
http://ezinearticles.com/?Part-1-of-2—The-Cancer-Cure-They-Dont-Want-You-to-Know-About&id=1345579