16 Crayons, Size Large, NOT Jumbo
I hate shopping for school supplies. What I hate more is the instructions on the teachers' lists- two boxes of 16 crayons, size large, NOT jumbo. Instructions like this requires me to drive within a 200 mile radius of my school district to hunt the item down only to determine that said item is now only sold on Ebay or doesn't exist in the US.
I don't know about your school, but there is zero discretion in the items that I can buy at my children's school. Gluesticks? Must be exactly "1.3156 ounces of ABC brand, NOT XYZ brand." Of course, the three stores that I went to only carry XYZ brand. Art pad? Must be exactly 70 sheets of such and such. After three years of hunting for this particular art pad, I finally found it!! Three grades later and I finally found the one with 70 sheets exactly. Not 60 or 100 but 70! When I finally found the correct art pad I felt like doing a happy dance at Target. PATHETIC.
Last year, the pain in my a@@ was a specific brand of pencils that I couldn't even pronounce. I looked everywhere for them. I should've known that they would not be an easy find when there was a disclaimer next to them telling me that "although [the pencils] cost much more than most, they are really the best brand to go with and therefore, don't.buy.anything.else."
These teachers have me on pins and needles. Must get correct school supplies, must do it ASAP. Must not fail this year or else suffer the consequences of instantly being the deadbeat parent of the year. Must start off the school year right. Must, must, must!
The pressure - I can't take it. It's too much!! School starts this week for two of my kids. This week! So far I have all but about 5 items left between my three children. That's pretty good. I only shopped around my entire town to get my list down to these last five items and I feel like a star parent already.
Ugh!! Summer is over.
Mamalaw is a group blog about three moms and wives who just happen to be lawyers too. We have seven kids between us which means that we have no shortage of funny stories, touching moments, reasons to rant and the occasional kernel of parenting wisdom. In our "spare time," we founded 
11 comments:
The school supply list is crazy! The Bug is starting kindergarten and we're supposed to get 2 boxes of 16 crayons each. Um, yeah, I can't find boxes of 16. I bought boxes of 24. More must be better, right? My father (who used to run an office supply company) pointed out that by having us buy certain brands and products, the schools may get some sort of rebate based on how many are sold. In times of slashing school budgets, maybe this is necessary. But a pain in the butt...YES.
too funny. although i suppose i shouldn't be laughing since Chatterbox starts Kindergarten this month! fwiw - you ARE a star parent, even if you bought the jumbo crayons.
PS
I hope you bought a stack of the 70-sheet art pads!
Thanks goodness I'm not there as yet, especially because options for ANYTHING child-related in DC are soooo limited.
I am NOT looking forward to these times.
shoot, i should've bought a stack at 70!!! i have several years and children ahead who will all go through the same resource teacher.
I feel your pain! The corner of our breakfast nook looks like a small office supply store has exploded in it! Thank goodness we weren't given specific brands to buy, but the process itself is enough to drive me batty! If I can score a primary journal (?????) and 4 manuscript tablets, I'm home free :)
If school were really smart, they'd have a school store. They have one in college, why not elementary, middle and high? They could purchase the products in bulk at a discounted price and sell them to make a profit! Takes the worry away from the parents, the school makes a little money, everyone's happy. I'd sure buy my supplies that way if it were offered.
My kids used to look
forward to back to
school shopping, but
I certainly didn't.
The list was over-whelming.
LOL because I go through this every year. School starts about a month from now, but I am waiting for classroom assignments to come in the mail first in case their teachers want specific crayons/folders/insert random item here.
Ha! Our school lists are just like yours -- maddening!! I thought it was just me, but I'm happy to know I have company driving around to four different stores to find exactly the right brand name, quantity, name, rank & serial number. :o)
-- Nancy
OMG! I can't believe such specifics! My daughters always want to have the complete list the schools leave in Wal-Mart as soon as the list are available. On the other hand, my son never cared if he even had a pencil.
Last week while getting x-rays in the emergency room, I over heard one x-ray tech tell another, parents had to provide dry erase markers for the teachers. Yeah, right!
For me, the worst part of back to school is shopping for clothes! HATE IT!
I had a thought as soon as I clicked publish. If you buy the wrong brand, will they send it back home? Try it, and see what happens! ROTF
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