I've said these words a thousand times in the last 3 years. I'm not going to lie, I am the first to complain about the growing supply lists I get every year. At my kids school they attach the supply list to the end of your child's report card. It's kind of like a sick joke the teachers play on you. You enjoy that five seconds of bliss where you think to yourself "ahhh... summer break" and then BAM!, a giant list of supplies for next year that you have to try and figure out where you will stash said list for the next few months so you can do all the back to school shopping when the crazy sales start in August.
Let me start out by saying my mother is a TA and I have a good amount of teacher friends. I've heard all the stories. I know what the teachers have to deal with and do on their own and the out of pocket expenses on their end. I respect all the school staff and what they do. It's nothing against them at all... it's just something we all do. If you try and tell me you have NEVER complained about a supply list and you have kids over the age of 6... you're full of it. I have complained to my husband more times than I can count of the lists getting longer and more specific every year. I vow that I will NOT spend more than is necessary this year and they get what they get. They don't NEED expo brand markers and other kids will be bringing is those dollar store crayons that break after one use. Why do I spend the money on Crayola every year when I can do the same thing? How come I have to supply SO many boxes of tissues and wipes? Shouldn't that be something that is supplied through the school?? Why is everything shared now? If I buy the item shouldn't my child be the one using it?
All these things go through my head and I work myself up for a good hour after reading the list. I hang it on our organizer and once it's covered in a few days with new lists, invitations and pictures I forget about it until teacher assignments are mailed home. I pull out the list and again start to feel that little ping of hatred for school supply shopping.
Once I start to read through the requested supplies again and make my shopping list, I see the specific requests of name brand items, certain width dry erase markers, and what seems like a dozen boxes of tissues. I begrudgingly write them all down or a take a pic of the lists and head to the store with the best sales. As I grab a cart and pull out my list/phone I start to rationalize the listed items...
Tissues/Wipes: My children are useless at blowing their nose. They waste tissue after tissue trying to blow their nose but really just blow from their mouth and wipe their nose. Children are foul and wipes are always needed. Fine, I'll buy them. Check.
Thin, black Expo markers: I know the pain of trying to erase a knock off brand marker and it stains the board. I know the frustration when you open a 2 day old dollar store dry erase marker and it's writing like it's been sitting out for 2 hours with the cap off. I know how hard it is to write legibly with the thick markers. I get it... Check. (although this year I did get the thick markers with the "bonus" thin because I checked 3 stores and that's all I could find. Sorry teachers... 3 stores is my limit).
Crayola Crayons: My children have giant man hands. They don't do delicate. If I buy the cheap, waxy crayons that break after one use my child will be the one suffering as well. If I can buy a durable set of crayons for the class to use why WOULDN'T I? That's one less thing they'll have to ask for halfway through the year when all the crayons are broken or thrown away by kids who don't want to clean up. Check.
Ridiculous amounts of sharpened pencils: Have you ever seen a child learning how/just starting to write use a pencil? If you have you know it's necessary to send in as many as you possibly can. Check.
Elmers Glue/Glue Sticks: Just watch a 5/6/7 year old use glue. It's painful. Check.
Large Freezer Ziploc Bags: I honestly don't know what these are used for besides the little book baggies the boys come home with. Some classes don't do that whole thing and so I'm sure there are different uses for every class. I do know that whatever it is used for those things only last so long when they have a half dozen paperback books shoved in them and my children (remember... non delicate man hands) use them every day. Check.
There is not one item on the list that I can actually find a good reason NOT to buy. My kids are 100% worth buying the best I can. These women and men are essentially helping to mold my children into smart, kind, respectful human beings. I am more than happy to do anything I can to help them along the way. I want them to have the best experience they can and if cutting out the frustration of easily breakable crayons, snot filled hands due to tissues that break after one blow and being able to have a million pencils on back up is what it takes, I'm doing it.
The other day I was in Walgreens picking up some things and saw a sale I couldn't pass up. I had already finished all the school shopping and we have enough supplies at home to last until they go off to college. There was no real reason to pick anything up but I couldn't walk away from it. They had so many school supplies on sale I decided to pick up a few things that I thought the teachers might need a little extra of to kind of help them out at the beginning of the year. I walked out with two boxes of crayola crayons, wipes, a bottle of elmers glue, a two pack of erasers, a small pack of expo markers and a $15 dunkin donuts gift card (because they're going to need coffee that first week of school). I walked out spending $19! I essentially got a quarter of their school supply list for $4. How could I NOT do that for the people that gave so much last year to my boys?? (My kids are in special ed classes and their teachers actually moved up with them this year... but I'll explain more about my boys in another post). I also ran to target and bought two shoe box type clear bins for under a dollar to put all the supplies in and let the boys design the teachers names in vinyl to stick on the side. The boys were so excited to be able to make something for their teachers and it helped them be a part of the gift as well. I also made a little box top container from a dollar store mini garbage bin. I'm sure you've seen them before. It's pretty much impossible to find those damn cans so when I found this one randomly thrown in the wrong isle I snatched it up!
You can call me a brown noser or a suck up. I don't mind.
My children aren't getting anything out of this. There is no preferential treatment they will receive, they won't get a higher grade because I brought in an extra set of crayons. They won't get extra recess or lunch because I gave an extra container of wipes.
I am not getting anything out of this. Their teachers will not give me anything special. I won't be their new best friend and I won't be able to influence anything that happens to my children or their work/grades, nor would I want that. I didn't do it for that. I did it so my kids will have what they need to get the most of their school experience and to give the teachers one less thing to worry about when the craziness begins.
So yes, I completely and utterly hate back to school shopping and classroom supply lists, but no matter how much I complain and protest I will always get the best I can for my child's classroom.
Let me know how YOU feel about school supply lists in the comments!
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