Is it 5:00 pm in the Hundred Acre Wood?

By Gretchen

My two oldest children need your money.

They plan to extract it from you by wooing you with homemade fliers advertising babysitting and leaf-raking services. One of my children promises to provide his own tools, which makes my husband laugh heartily and do a mental checklist of his tools’ whereabouts. I better not find a rake under anyone’s bed.

If my kids can raise enough money through earnest kid business enterprises, they’ll enjoy educational trips to southern California and New York City next spring. One kid will be on each coast during the same week, which is a thought that takes a mommy’s breath away—especially when she lives in the center of the country.

I find myself in a quandary, though. I am generally unimpressed by fundraisers. I have a very easy, guilt-free time saying no to the most earnest, gap-toothed, sparkly-eyed first grader peddling frozen cookie dough. Unless I am 2 weeks postpartum and mentally weary when he appears on our porch with a pamphlet. Then? He has my heart and a good chunk of my grocery budget.

The cookie dough kid, who I don’t know, caught me at the weakest possible moment. 5pm, weeknight, hungry, with judgement as razor sharp as Winnie the Pooh’s.

I admit I am a hypocrite of epic proportions. Think of the length of all the gift wrap ever sold to provide funding for new jump ropes and smart boards. Double it. That’s how hypocritical I am. I get annoyed when kids try to sell things I don’t need to me. But I find myself hoping that everyone else in the world, or at least our subdivision, will fork over their hard-earned dollars so my kids can fly to places flung far next Spring.

Are you more likely to support a fundraiser if a service is involved, like snow shoveling? Or would you rather buy something out of a catalog?

I wonder if Winnie the Pooh needs his lawn mowed.

Gretchen blogs at Lifenut.