When you signed up your kid for school, did you also think you’d also be signing up for an Amway like sales cult? Yeah, I didn’t think so either. Almost all schools have a variety of different fundraising schemes and shenanigans. Our own Jeanne Sager wrote about How to Say No to the Kid Selling You Something, but as equally hard is the question of how to say no to a parent selling you something.
Kids, they’re pretty resilient. They probably won’t remember two or three years from now that you didn’t buy their candy/cookie/craft. But adults, we don’t easily forget being snubbed by our peers.
Recently, my daughter’s preschool had a quilt fundraiser with each family being responsible to sell a certain amount of tickets. Not wanting to push the purchase on my friends, family and acquaintances, I only sold about 3 or 4 tickets to those really close to me, those who basically had to say yes. The rest, I just paid for myself. I didn’t feel compelled to inflict the raffle tickets on everyone I know, which could lead to some awkward yes, no and maybes.
I’ve been on the other end and have ended up with candy, cookies, magazine subscriptions, and cookie dough. Items I didn’t want or need but I didn’t want to be the jerk friend that said ‘no’, especially when the parent is purely just ‘doin’ it for the kids’.
Have you had to sell stuff for your kid’s school? And when fellow parents you to buy something do you ever say no?
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