Parents who push Girl Scout Cookies

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:A friend of mine in a large American city sends his kid to public school, but the PTA at that school (in a very rich neighborhood) does a huge amount of fundraising to where the quality of the school is close to private. Several times a year he posts on his FB aggressively about things like popcorn sales that his tween is supposedly doing to raise money for the school--last time it was for a very expensive trip. He will say his daughter needs to sell x amount more to be in "first place" or whatever, and the amount of popcorn sales was over 3k last time. Ridiculous.

I used to fall for this stuff so hard. Colleagues would be like "we're raising money for the public school" and I'd go ahead and give money/buy the popcorn/whatever because I do care about supporting public schools.

Then I actually had a kid and learned more about public schools in our city and realized I'd been giving a ton of money to all the rich schools in the city for a bunch of extras that mostly only helped wealthy kids whose parents could afford those extras anyway. I felt like a chump.

Now I actually pay attention. I contribute when it's a title one school with a high at risk population, or if the fundraiser is going directly to fund an academic or enrichment activity I really support. But I don't just randomly participate in fundraisers for public schools where the average family has twice my HHI. It's ridiculous how much money I gave to those schools over the year. Oh well, hope the kids got something out of it I guess.

My kids go to a school that some wealthy neighborhoods, some average neighborhoods, and a lot of very low income families, so schools can be a really surprising mix. Last year a child came to our house asking for donations to build a new playground at her PRIVATE school. I was stunned but said no.

[Anonymous]

The GS have enabled a way for girls to sell digitally. Why are you so personally offended? We also do cookie booths but I will not go door to door. Who even answers their door anymore?

[Anonymous]

The selling was one reason I avoided signing my kids up for scouts. The idea of selling stuff on behalf of my kids makes me uncomfortable.

I don't get personally offended by social posts though. Many people do truly want to buy GS cookies - there is a certain comfort in them - and like having the chance to purchase them easily. I just ignore the posts, but if a friend emails me directly, or a kid comes to my door (hasn't happened in years), I buy one box.

I was briefly a Brownie as a kid. My mother stayed home. I remember being jealous of kids whose mothers brought the cookie order form into the office and got a ton of business. (I guess fathers could do that ... but that didn't seem like a possibility). Anyway, these things have been happening for a while, just in different formats.

[Anonymous]

For the cookie snobs, guess what? Donating boxes of cookies that Girl Scouts will give to a local charity (Metropolitan USO around here) counts towards girls' goals the same as if you buy cookies for yourself. It's called Troop2Troops.

[Anonymous]

I practice everything that I preach

[Anonymous]

GS guides kids to make their own online advertisement and yes, it gets sent to parent friends. Just don’t respond. The GS donate tons of boxes. Each troop picks a group to which they donate. The military, firefighters, hospital ERs, whichever.
The troop earns money from the sales to fund their activities, which include many cool things that girls could not otherwise afford. GS also have related badges concerning business and being an entrepreneur that relate to cookie sales, all of which is valuable to kids. Many kids sell cookies to earn money for summer camp.

If you don’t want them, just say no, and move on. It’s a good organization that provides leadership opportunities for girls and civic education.

There are so many other things to whine about.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:GS guides kids to make their own online advertisement and yes, it gets sent to parent friends. Just don’t respond. The GS donate tons of boxes. Each troop picks a group to which they donate. The military, firefighters, hospital ERs, whichever.
The troop earns money from the sales to fund their activities, which include many cool things that girls could not otherwise afford. GS also have related badges concerning business and being an entrepreneur that relate to cookie sales, all of which is valuable to kids. Many kids sell cookies to earn money for summer camp.

If you don’t want them, just say no, and move on. It’s a good organization that provides leadership opportunities for girls and civic education.

There are so many other things to whine about.

How is mommy selling your cookies for you teaching them about leadership?

[Anonymous]

If they’re selling Peanut Butter Patties and Caramel deLites then it’s highly offensive, and the parents should be censured.

If they’re selling Tagalongs and Samoas then the parents are performing a public service and deserve gratitude.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:What does it teach your child if most of their boxes are sold through your own social media push? Guilting colleagues and friends into buying multiple highly processed cookies that last only 6 months. What happened to door-to-door sales? Kudos to the parents who encourage old school ways of selling the cookies and don't post links and sales on their Facebook pages. "Look how many boxes Larla sold!" but it was really just her mother selling them to her friends!

Relax.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:For the cookie snobs, guess what? Donating boxes of cookies that Girl Scouts will give to a local charity (Metropolitan USO around here) counts towards girls' goals the same as if you buy cookies for yourself. It's called Troop2Troops.

Just like sending your unwanted Halloween candy to the military, or "donating" overly-used clothing, you don't want to give crap to others, PP. Most don't want that stuff anyway.

[Anonymous]

FWIW, I was relieved when my kid decided to quit GS, because it was not my cup of tea.

That said, cookie sales were a great experience for my shy daughter. I refused to do digital sales, but she did a ton door to door. The girls had a lot of fun doing booths, and agree with PP that learning how to handle “no thanks” is an important part of it.

[Anonymous]

I don't like it when coworkers post on fb and ask around at company for donation to their kids going to disney ticket/hotel/air flights etc for a dance performance. Just pure dollar donation or paypal or other app. It feels awkward if they come to my office directly to ask me for donation. They always say any little money count, but my kids have not gone to disney yet. I always have difficulty to say no.

Once, I said no to a private school ticket fundraising, the coworker yelled at me saying that she would see when my kid got to school age kid. I was in shock. She complained to supervisor that I had upset her and not paying $10 for her son's private school fundraising ticket. I did not have anything to say. If you could send your kid to private school since pre-k to high school, you are rich. My kids go to public school, and I will nevet pass those brochure around to sell cookie, cookware, fundraising etc. I will just donate on my own if my school asks for it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Personally I find door-to-door sales more “guilting” than an email or social media post that I can easily ignore.

I thought door to door was discouraged because of predators.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:They taste awful. I'm not eating that crap just to please someone else, and I'm not wasting my money either.

This. Nobody wants these cheap, unhealthy junkie cookies! Can someone save us from them, please! Every year we have to go through this crap. At work, moms pushing cookies, by stores- kids standing trying to sell them, family members trying to sell them to you. I'm just so sick of it. I want to eat healthy, I don't want to waste my money on this junk.

[Anonymous]

Door to door sales don't work - nobody answers the door anymore (including me) and it's dark at 5 this time of year.
But, I'm also opting out of digital sales this year because the website bombards my email contacts with multiple messages that I have no control over. And the digital platform is not really something DD10 can manage herself anyway, as she doesn't have an email address.

So, just booth sales for us.