Paying for children's social activities


 On April 26th, 2022, I made the following remarks in response to some comments on Miss Manners' column on uexpress.

I thought that this whole business of fundraising by selling candy was a cop-out from providing real support for youth activities, and that children should be absolved of responsibility for covering expenses which their elders have cooked up.  What do you think?  (I did some editing to protect the innocent.)

"Stop forcing any of these kids to do the fundraising, which is the grownups' job. If we can't support these children's programs without roping the kids themselves into supplying an all-too-big percentage of the support, then we should rethink our approach to providing activities for kids.  Making kids sell candy for funds is a longstanding tradition, but the expenses were manufactured by parents and social leaders, not children. If the organization doesn't have a swimming pool, they can run some sprinklers; games of tag and pickup basketball are also fun and inexpensive. So are simple picnic lunches and day hikes in the nearest nature reserve."

Posted by Jennifer A. Nolan


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