More Money

I had no idea this year that when my daughter went to school this year that it would cost me more money than I had been spending on a sitter. I had expected to save money. Ha! I only had to hand over twenty dollars for school supplies but then it was book orders (I'm a sucker for children's books), hot lunch and milk orders, fund raisers (magazine subscriptions and coffe), green Christmas, and school photos. Silly me, I thought school photos were only in the fall but now they have spring ones as well. And well...instead of writing a note and saying this is just another way to solicit money so I won't give my daughter permission to have her picture taken, I signed the form. Now she brings home her proofs and it's so.... cute. What parent doesn't like photos of their kid, even when they're crying? So, out I fork more money to send photos to the grandparents. And with a divorce in the mix that isn't two pictures, that's three. Then I'd like one for the half sister who lives in another province, one for my daughter of course for her memory album, and me. I think my sister had many reasons for deciding to home school her children, and this is one of them. Don't we pay taxes so our kids can go to school for free? Yet we send in boxes of tissues, wrapping paper, photo copy paper, and I drive my daughter to and from school because there is no busing for French Immersion. Money, money, money, always money, in a rich man's world.