Do you mean to tell me....

That my child is seriously going to use 72 yellow #2 pencils this year? Or 4 bottles of glue? What about four 24 count boxes of crayons? Umm, and NOooo, the 96 count box will not be acceptable. And what's the deal with buying a package of medium tip RED pens? My 4th grader is not even allowed to use mechanical pencils, so I have a hunch they're not for her! Oh! And let's not forget 3 boxes of 12 count map pencils and 2 boxes of 24 count map pencils...ALL FOR THE SAME CHILD!

Okay, I'm not dense. I understand what's going on here. I know some parents will buy no supplies for their children, and if parents don't bring surplus, then the teachers have to buy more supplies then they probably already will. I get it. But, seriously, why can't I buy my kid the mongo box of crayons if I want? And why does the 2 inch 3 ring binder have to be white only?

Of course, there is an up side here. In Texas, no school supplies were allowed to be labeled. All supplies went into a giant vat and was equally distributed among every student. Is that communism or socialism or what? No individuality, you must match everyone else, because we don't want those less fortunate to feel badly that they don't have the cool folder with a kitty cat on it. (Notice I totally let my girls pick out their notebooks and folders. And the dent in my pocket book is there to prove it.)


Did I just say pocket book? How Grandma Irene is that? She always carries a pocket book, and makes frequent references to her pocket book and absences of money therein.

Now, here's another rant for you. Why do I buy paper towels, kleenexes and ziplock bags for the school? Remember when you blew your nose on the roll of toilet paper sitting on top of the big round trash can, and you were glad something was there to wipe your schnoz on? And what about the paper towel dispenser in the classroom? Where did it go? Of course, when my kids have a cold, I send them with kleenexes of their own to use complete with lotion in them, but that's just because I'm a good mom. I hate a sore nose.

So. There you have it. I feel better now that I have that off my chest. Let's just hope I can keep Studmuffin from spotting the principle at school. He's determined to have a talk with her about better allocation of funds if we have to buy the basics for our kids, and why do we have to be told exactly what supply to bring. "If my girls come home and say, 'I need new crayons, mine are all broken,' then I'll buy them what I want to buy, not what the school says I have to buy." Oh, Gentle Reader, he's been rehearsing variations of his speech all night. Another variation includes references to the Obama 8 count standard pack of crayons, and it only includes shades of gray with no white and black, and too bad for the less fortunate that our kids can have the big box...You are stuck with the government stimulus crayon. One can only hope that I can keep him from embarrassing the girls and me by avoiding the principle all together tomorrow at meet the teacher. Wish me luck!