<p>Well, then don’t participate in it if it bothers you. But it’s rather churlish to be all upset that your fees go towards the crayons and paper that go into your child’s creations. Really, life is too short to be upset over this type of thing.</p>
<p>And JHS - if it’s a church-related daycare that supports another activity of the church, well, that’s what happens if you choose a church-related daycare. It’s rather like going to Catholic school and being put off by requirements to attend Mass. That’s what it is.</p>
<p>Well, I have been accused of over thinking things, too but here goes. I’m an art teacher and have participated in this kind of thing several times. It always leaves a bad taste in my mouth. Here are a few reasons why:</p>
<p>Young children are attached to their work.</p>
<p>Young children cannot make an informed decision about which charities they should support and which ones they shouldn’t (or don’t want to. Or want to but not enough to give up their artwork for).</p>
<p>It IS holding the kids work hostage, as another poster mentioned. How can a parent refuse? What if they truly can’t afford to buy the art? How will the children feel who still have work on the wall after the big sale?</p>
<p>Besides all of that, I have a big problem with the incestuous nature of so many fundraisers. You know the kind. I make a bird house and my neighbor makes a bird house and we all go to the big gala and buy each others bird houses and pay ten times more than any birdhouse is worth. So now we have spent the money on the supplies to build the bird house, spent hours making it and spent the money on the other persons bird house! It’s ridiculous. Just ask me to write a check, already!</p>
<p>Sorry, I was being facetious. I don’t really think the place is holding the artwork hostage!</p>
<p>I suspect we are talking about one or two pieces of artwork out of the, oh, two billion and sixteen thousand, eight hundred and forty-four that the average US-born child produces by age 8. A well-run daycare with professional staff will be able to handle this in an age-appropriate way. My preschoolers created get well cards and thinking of you artwork for old age homes and soldiers. Same sort of situation here. </p>
<p>We learned early on to skip the galas and just write a check.</p>
<p>Besides, the OP is missing a golden opportunity to kill two birds with one stone. Tell your relatives who are asking you for money that you’ve spent it all on your child’s artwork. :D</p>
<p>SlitheyTove,
I knew you were being facetious but I really do feel that way. It isn’t really about the fact that kids produce vast quantities of art and won’t miss one or two. What I meant was that the whole situation becomes awkward and forces many hands. The kids make the art (and I feel that this is a very subtle form of exploitation). The parents are put in the position of having to buy it and the Day Care providers are, I’m guessing, put into the position of having to prepare, frame, whatever, the work for display. All of this to fund a charity that is not necessarily supported by the families.</p>
<p>Again, I’m probably over thinking it but I see a lot of this kind of thing in the work I do.</p>
<p>I know this is practically un-American of me to say, but I’ve always thought it was inappropriate to engage children directly in any kind of fundraising for school. It’s fine to ask them to contribute a drawing for a calendar or a handprint for a stool, but not to be a sales person for some product like gift wrap. </p>
<p>I’ve taught art in the past and I know that children take pride in their artwork and it is meaningful to them. (I remember a kid who refused to be part of a museum show because she didn’t want to part with her piece!) I know not every kid will be a Picasso someday, but he was a kid too, once. </p>
<p>And auctions aren’t harmless either – it’s great if your kid’s piece triggers a bidding war (I guess), but what if no one wanted it? I don’t think that’s the kind of thing kids need to learn at school.</p>
I hate the gift wrap thing. Some of the profit goes to the school, sure, but the gift wrap company gets a massive free child labor pool, oh so eager for the plastic toys and nigh-unreachable “grand prizes”. “Sure, we’ll give you an iPod if you sell $10,000 worth of merchandise… Oh, just $500? Here, have a plastic yoyo.”</p>
<p>I greatly prefer charity to that.</p>
<p>
I agree, there’s likely not going to be a problem.</p>
<p>I have been at those auctions where high school students work is being auctioned off. I have bid on pieces because no one else would and I couldn’t bear to have that kid find out that no one wanted their block print or photograph. </p>
<p>I have also been asked over and over again to donate my own artwork or my students to different organizations. I no longer donate my own and I HATE donating work from my students. The work usually sells for less than it cost to make it. </p>
<p>I agree that using children in any form to raise money is a form of exploitation. No, its not the worst kind of exploitation but still…</p>
<p>What I’ve decided - and will be my philosophy for the next 20 years of donations requests - is that I need to pay attention to the cause that the donations support, and then if it is a cause that I support, then figure out how I want to go about supporting the cause. </p>
<p>In this case, it is not a cause that we support in our family, so it makes no sense to participate in this event. Should they hold a art silent auction for a different cause - one that we have chosen to support - then I’ll consider it at that time.</p>
<p>We’re all overwhelmed by the number of organizations, non-profits, and other places looking for donations.</p>
<p>(As a side note, several people mentioned on this thread that $7 an hour is a screaming bargin for daycare. It comes out to be $70 a day, which is $17000 a year…I’m not sure how much daycare costs in your part of the country, but $17000 a year for daycare is no bargain in my book.)</p>
<p>Wait, this is a four month old spending 50 hours a week in group day care? I feel so bad for all of you – how many hours a week, Monday through Friday, when the baby is awake, do you get to spend together?</p>
<p>Botw, one thing I don’t get about you from posting with you elsewhere is why you have to decide on philosophies for the next 20 years. Why do you have to set this philosophy in stone? Why can’t you just take each situation as it comes?</p>
<p>It seems that most of you know more about Babyontheway than I do. Is it possible that there is another child in daycare besides the four month old?</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>What I get from this is that Babyontheway is deciding on a philosophy of donation, not what particular charities he will donate to.</p>
<p>Unless the charity is totally offensive, which I highly doubt a child-care center would support, then I would pop for the 10, 15 or 25 bucks to buy my kids art. It’s worth my kid’s self-esteem even if I don’t particularly like the charity. If you are spending 17k on childcare, what’s another few bucks? Then again, at 4mos old, the self-esteem issue isn’t an issue. When he/she is 3 or 4 it would be. </p>
<p>Good luck. My two oldest were in full time daycare as infants. I was blessed enough to stay home with my third. While the oldest were loved and cared for by a lovely in-home provider, I still feel so sad when I think of all that they missed out on with me working 10 hrs a day.</p>
<p>BOTW has just the four-month-old, if I am not mistaken - no older children.</p>
<p>I agree - this is not the place to debate whether one “should” use daycare or make it a working-parent slam. </p>
<p>My comment to BOTW was more predicated on the fact that BOTW tends to want to come up with sweeping lifelong principles. For example, saving money for college - which was great – but BOTW wanted to decide right now whether or not they would save just for public / state schools or for the cost of private school. BOTW was already well ahead of the curve in amassing a good sum of money for this purpose (bravo to BOTW and Mrs. BOTW!) - but why did it need to be decided now whether they’d only pay for public or private? Who knows what the next 18 years will bring, whether they make a lot more money than they’d planned to or a lot less, what the kid’s needs / desires / ambitions will be … why not just play it as it comes? Same thing here. If you don’t want to participate in this event (and you don’t need to – no 4 month old is making “artwork” anyway) - then don’t; why the need to set it in stone as a lifelong principle? Maybe by the time the kid is making real artwork, you’ll feel differently or decide to do something different. It’s the inflexibility of coming up with lifelong principles set in stone that is what I am reacting to.</p>
<p>You don’t say- I support parents who are insuring that their family is financially stable.
However once you are a parent, how much $$$ is actually needed?
Do you really need the two adults in the household to be spending more time away from the family home than in it?
Are the parents really so inflexible that the only option is for a group care situation 50 hrs a week?</p>
<p>There is a big difference between not being supportive of working parents, just and trying to put the needs of the child in the frame.</p>
A well-run daycare with professional staff will be able to handle this in an age-appropriate way. My preschoolers created get well cards and thinking of you artwork for old age homes and soldiers. Same sort of situation here. </p>