Daycare Craziness

Before I get started on my rant this morning, for that's what it will be, let me just say that I love the daycare our son is at.  It is by far, the best one we looked at during our process of seeking out and weeding out daycares.  It is a fun atmosphere with adults who actually care about the children they are watching and the socialization amongst the children is fantastic.  I could go on, but it would detract from what I really want to talk about today, pictures and marketing.  Having gone to Catholic schools from grammar school through college, I was always aware of the fundraisers that we needed to do in order to bring in extra money for those extras that couldn't be fit into the normal operating budget.  I probably started in first grade with my first fundraiser and from there on out, was either involved or at least heard about them in the schools I went to.  That being said, I never in my wildest dreams expected my wife to come home last week and tell me that our son has his first fundraiser.  What?  At the ripe old age of not even 2, our son, or rather us, his parents, have been tasked with a fundraiser.  For what?  I don't know, and frankly, I don't really care as we will not be taking part in any "fundraisers" for our son's daycare.  From what I can gather, there is nothing extra that he needs there and everything seems to be provided for.  We provide him everything except the supervision that he gets.  Therefore, we will not be doing any "fundraisers".  The idea is novel, a coupon book for parents with young kids to help them save money.  The coupon book is fairly thick and if we actually shopped at any of the places that there were coupons for, it might be worth the $25 it costs.  However, the only place we shop in the entire coupon book is Subway.  For Subway alone, we will not be buying the coupon book.  On top of that, we will not be asking our parents or any relatives to buy one either.  Its not like there is some grand prize for whoever sells the most coupon books.  I just think it is a tad bit early to get started on this whole fundraiser extravaganza.  While I recognize the necessity once our son gets older and becomes involved in activities for which a fundraiser is necessary, at his age, the coupon book is most likely going to get returned to the daycare.  I could go on, but I don't really want to as I have other and more important things to talk about. 

 

How about school pictures?  That's right, we got our first flyer with the opportunity to buy our son's pictures from daycare.  He is not even two as I mentioned and already we are embarking on this "school photo" crap.  No offense to the photographers out there, but I studied photography for a while during my college career and my wife is an artist.  As such, we will not be having any other photographer take pictures of our son and sell them to us for an exorbitant amount of money.  I know they need to cover their basis, but the smallest package deal is $40.  I could take a picture just as well as that photographer could, print it, and frame it for about $3.  What gets me even more is that there is an option on there for the photographer to make the pictures "social media friendly" seemingly so the parents of the children at our son's daycare can take those pictures and plaster them all over their Facebook pages to show them off.  "Look at my daughter who is three and not old enough to have a Facebook page yet has such an online presence because of me!"  Crap, I tell you!  There are so many add ons to the packages that a parent could spend well over a hundred dollars on their son's or daughter's daycare picture.  Let me just remind everyone that we are talking about daycare, not actual school.  While some people may call it school, it is still a daycare where they happen to be taught different skills that will be useful to them later on.  I know at times it may seem more like school, but they essentially just have fun there.  I guess there is just a big part of me that thinks our society is pushing things a little too far a little too quickly.  Whatever happened to preserving the innocence of childhood and keeping them out of the marketing (fundraiser) and glamour (photo) arena.  I know I am in the minority here and most parents eat this stuff up, but I don't and probably never will.  I may very well be one of the last of the old fashioned "new" parents out there.  Then again, maybe not.  All I do know is that I won't be taking part in any damn fundraisers or paying any photographer to take pictures of our son.  Daycare will remain exactly that, daycare.  Once our son starts school, that will be a different story, but for now, we are keeping life simple.