Back to School Shopping

Back to school shopping- not something I am really that fond of. I deal just fine with getting the new jeans, shirts, underwear and socks- but it is the supplies that almost push me over the edge!!!! Today was our dreaded school supply shopping day. I had a list for Decota, a list for Cambria, and a pretty good idea for Declan (at least enough of one to get him started) so off we went to the Happiest Place On Earth (NOT) WALMART. As we walked through the isles adding more and more junk to the cart, the more and more irritated I seemed to get. Not at my kids mind you, but at the stinking schools. Over 2/3 of the stinking lists were things for the teachers: Sharpies, Expo Markers, Scotch Tape, Play-Dough (seriously, for 8th grade), reams of copy paper, and a plethora of other things for my kids to turn into their teachers on the 1st day of school. Funny that I paid $6000 in property taxes this year, the majority of it going to the school district, yet I still have to stock the teachers classrooms. Then, on top of that, all of the regular supplies I buy like pencils, pens, papers, markers, spiral notebooks, graph paper, erasers, colored pencils, glue and stuff like that also get turned into the teachers to be redistributed at their discretion. What does that mean, out of the $250 on school supplies that I bought for my kids they will get to keep a binder, a pack of paper, 2 pens, 2 pencils and a notebook. The rest they rarely ever get to have redistributed to them so when they need refills I have another supply of supplies waiting at home. There just seems to be something wrong with this system-right?