As the days grow shorter as well as hotter and humidity rears it's muggy, sticky head more often that not, that has most of us abandoning the yard work seeking shelter indoors amongst the hum of our air conditioners we realize.... it's almost here. Pre-season football takes over Thursday through Saturday evenings as notebooks, pencils, pens and glue sticks take over department store displays. Yes, the dog days of summer have truly arrived in full New England fashion and in just a couple of weeks, if not sooner in some states, our kids will be going back to school. For those of my fellow Observers who do not have children, the best way to describe this time of year to you is that it is a bittersweet moment for parents. A combination of melancholy and indescribable joy as our minds conflict between the emotions of missing our children who have been on our heels 24-7 for the past 78 plus days and the relief of them being someone else's problem for a few precious hours a day as we attempt to un-shamble our homes and recreate that self satisfying false sense of order in our lives.... if only for a little while.
As this time of year approaches, one thing I have Observed that keeps popping up more and more is all the school supply drives that all the local organizations, stores and even school systems are participating in if not sponsoring them. Even the news stations are all jumping on the Ticonderoga express. WFSB, WTNH, WVIT, all have their own drives to collect supplies, respectively. There are more free one subject notebooks, erasers and Post-It notes out there than you can shake a school approved ruler at. Now, seeing as some of you know me, your probably wondering when I'm going to start complaining and might be asking yourselves and just what kind of a problem I could have with all this. The short answers are, Soon and I'm getting to it, my loyal reader.
The longer version will take a few paragraphs as I explain that I have absolutely no problem whatsoever with the drives themselves. I think they are a wonderful thing to do as most child experts claim that children who begin the year with brand new lunch boxes, folders, markers and other supplies, start their school year with optimism and a higher enthusiasm to learn. Nothing wrong with that.... not one single thing. No, what gets me seeing Sharpie red is that while watching one of the news channels handing out backpacks last year in a 4 minute segment designed to show us all the good that they were doing, my wife and I noticed something disturbing. As a grade school boy sported his new backpack for the camera and reporters, telling all the viewers through a missing two front teeth, never ending grin that this was his "first new backpack.... ever" the cameraman panned to a shot of his mother smiling and taking pictures of euphoric little Timmy...... with a brand new I-Phone. Wait.... What?!?! This woman has a phone that I can't afford to buy for my wife and she can't purchase her son a $15.00 backpack? Is somebody kidding me?
Fast forward to this years drives and we find a little girl, positively giddy over a lunch bag and some new writing utensils in a pink pencil box with a pony on the cover, standing next to yet another mother who was thanking the organizers for all their help in getting little Suzy everything she needed to start her school year, holding a state of the art phone with her arms and chest covered with dozens of tattoos. Having a few myself, (tattoos, that is) I know how much they cost and this woman's body had thousands of dollars of ink on it. Oh well, not to worry. Maybe she's seeing a tattoo artist. Something tells me.... she's not. Mores the pity.
There's my problem.... right there.... Priorities. As there are plenty of other parents who follow the same reprehensible pattern as these two women, I haven't named names or specific drives and have even used different names for the children in an effort not to single anyone out. There is a more important issue than simply pointing fingers at a select few. The point is, that it annoys me, as it should anyone with a moral conscience who likes to sleep at night, that this behavior seems to be the norm now and is beneath society's notice as no one looks twice at these so-called parents spending money on themselves as they look to others and charities to provide for their children.
Yes, some could make excuses for what I have Observed. In these two particular cases, one can easily make claim that these two families fell on hard times after they already had the tattoos and smart phones and that very well may be the case, but it doesn't ring a true school bell in every case. I see adults, all the time, putting their wants before their children needs. I covered this aspect of parental nature in last years article The Social And Financial Inconvenience Of Having Children www.expenseofchildren.blogspot.com . This facet of self indulging conduct takes it even farther down the gimme, gimme, gimme road as my wife and I have purchased school supplies for two children over the years and I have to say that it has never broken our financial backs to do so. I do understand that some families straits are so dire that they genuinely need assistance of this manner and I wholeheartedly support and contribute to these drives for those who do, however, I find myself less than sympathetic for those who choose to use their limited funds for luxuries rather than their children. Makes me wonder what else these unfortunate children go without by their parents actions.
I'm not just picking on the parents, mind you. They have a lot of help in the depriving children of needed educational materials department as we constantly hear about how the school systems themselves are not providing enough supplies for the kids. We have teachers paying out of pocket for items they need in the classroom. They also reach out to parents to help the class with the most basic of needs. Tissues, wipes, cups, craft supplies, pencils, crayons.... it goes on and on and on. The school budget our town just passed a few months ago was for over 33 million dollars and our teachers are scrounging for Crayolas? It's a disgrace. It is incomprehensible, infuriating and we should be ashamed that we allow it to happen.
As a society we continually pride ourselves in putting our children first. Pat our own backs for how we raise them, what we do for them, what we sacrifice, when the sad truth is that if the parents aren't shortchanging them by purchasing the latest and the greatest to keep them well connected socially or on the road in style because they think they deserve it, as they work so hard, we let our elected officials do so by giving themselves outrageous salaries because they work so hard and they deserve it. We have to acknowledge that our children fall prey to the greed and indifference of the adults who claim that they are the most important factor. That they are our future and their needs have to come first, while crossing their fingers behind their backs as they say it. The worst of it is, that as children witness this, even though they are unaware of it at first, as they grow older they begin to emulate the behavior creating a whole new generation of self-indulging, self-serving, self-centered adults that are worst than the ones before them. So what exactly do our children deserve? The short answer is.... Better than what they receive. Strictly an Observation. If you'll excuse me, I forgot pink erasers at the store.
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