To think that bag packing is exploitive

[Janeta]

My daughters Cheerleading club want her to do 5 hours bag packing at a local supermarket on Saturday and 4 hours on Sunday to help raise money for mats etc for the club. She is 11 years old. Is this too many hours as she will be shattered bearing in mind the busy Xmas period

Doesn't bother me to be honest. I did this when I was younger.

If she is even a little bit outgoing, she will love it. It will be busy but Christmassy and exciting and the customers will chat to her and her friends, and she will feel totally grown up.

Two days running seems a bit much. Not that she wouldn't be capable, but more that it would be too much interruption to family plans.

My 9yo nephew has done it several times recently and he loves it.

She'll sleep well then. :)

At 11, and even younger, In My Day, kids spent 8 hour days howking tatties in the fields. Now that's tiring.

I don't know, but if I have to go near a supermarket at this time of year, especially if any of the DCs are with me I would pay NOT to have any cubs/brownies/sprites 'help' me, as I'd rather categorise it myself and I can usually do it faster than them.

I know, I am the grinch . I never say anything, always smile and always donate, but really I'd rather they left me alone.

No I think it is exploitative. I really dont like charity bag packers for several reasons.

1. if it is a job they should be paying people to do it, not using "charity"
2. If I want to support a cause I will do regardless, I do not need, or want, to be coerced into it. 3)I am fussy as to how my shopping bags are packed. So someone who knows how to pack fine. Unfortunately ime charity workers (or exploited kids!) dont.

Anyway rant aside at 11yo i wouldn't let a child of mine loose on the busiest saturday of the year. Sounds horrendous. surely there are better ways for them to raise money - like a display?

Legally at that age they cannot work. Legally at 16 they can only work four hours before having a half hour break.

Yes it is exploitive.

1 hour would be more than enough at that age.

She will be just fine.

Bag packing is extremely lucrative and most supermarkets have 6 month+ waiting lists. Why don't you go with her if you are worried and you can make sure she gets a break?

I'd be a bit miffed about the disruption to family life tbh. Would be happy for my dcs to do two hours or so on one of the days, but not longer.

And agree - I'd rather make a donation but be left to pack my own bags!

And a cheerleading club isn't something I'd choose to support tbh.

ON a quiet day, yes. Not at Xmas time. I had to do this when I was in Girl Guides, and it was horrible. It was a bust day (Not even Xmas time!) and shoppers were so obnoxious! As an 11 year old I had no idea how to pack a shopping bag well, and had to deal with angry looks and nasty comments for hours on end. Most people didn't even give me a donation.

didn't know they still did this, I don't think it'd do em much harm TBH

BUT I absolutely hate people trying to pack my bags for me! a till assistant got huffy with me this week because I asked her not to (she was putting cleaning products in with raw meat and all sorts, I had it all @nally nicely sorted into piles on the conveyer and she was mucking it all up! I also pack my bags so that the are in a good order for packing in the car.

Its even worse on a day when I don't have use of a car! I HAVE to pack the light stuff separate so it can go on the buggy handles and the heavy stuff underneath.

I would probably give a donation just to get them to back off, but imagine it would be very boring because how many people are gonna want their steaks bleeding onto their bread, even for charity?

would be better if they just stood there with collection boxes TBH rather than trying to do something that noone needs or wants

That's too long I think... I would say so.

whilst i would be ok about my 11 year old doing voluntary work for a few hours of a weekend, i would not be happy to have shopping, and especially not my 'blo0dy hell its busy, im stressed and just want to sit down' christmas shopping, packed by anyone else, (even worse if i then felt obliged to pay them for it) i would rather they stood ear the door and sang and i would donate on the way in

( hours is ridiculous! And I a bit about a commercial club doing it.

My Explorer dd and Cub ds will be bag packing for an hour or so each today - well, they will largely be politely offering then collecting the money people give them to not pack their bags for them!

It's a regular annual thing at this particular supermarket, it's loads of fun, the little old ladies love having their bags packed and carried to their cars by cheerful teenagers. And the kids get a real kick out of raising money to help repair their boats and other equipment for the summer. Win/win in my opinion!

(but they always leave one checkout unScouted for the real Grinches!

I don't think it's that unreasonable and it's good for them to do something actually useful to get the money rather than hassling all their relatives for sponsorship to do something random, though 5 hours sounds on the long side unless they get a proper break, I'd question that.
I hope (but don't expect) they're going to get a 10 minute briefing session on basic technique beforehand, for the sake of everyone's meringues.

I think five hours plus four hours is far too long especially with the supermarket full of grumpy/stressed Christmas shoppers.

Tell the club you've got other commitments that weekend but she can spare them a couple of hours both days.

Hate people packing my bags for me. As oneortwo says, they always get it wrong and put cleaning stuff in with food, or frozen stuff in with fresh. My pet hate is overloading the bags - I walk home from the supermarket so I don't want the bags to burst! Some of the charity packers obviously only ever transfer bulging bags from the trolley to the car so just don't care about packing them to the brim.

YANBU. I loathe having my bags packed anyway. If I wanted a grubby child mauling all my shopping, I'd bring my own.

I usually give them a donation, smile, and say I'd rather pack my bags myself.

I have to ask for help with packing and taking the trolley to the car. Normally its the check out op who has to help me which is not good news for the person behind me in the q.

On Thursday a teenager helped me pack, but she was not allowed to take the trolley to the car, her adult helper had to do that but she put everything in the boot for me ready for my dh to unload at home.

I was very happy to pay them and if it had been for cheer leading it would have been the same, its great that kids have something positive to do, normally run by volunteers

Hope your dd loves the weekend at her supermarket

I think YANBU. If it's voluntary work, they should definateley not put any pressure on anyone, particularly kids. And they should offer a variety of options in terms of how long they can do (an hour, two hours, three hours etc).

That's a lot of hours, but my son's rugby team and scout troop have bag packed to raise funds, and parents have been asked to pitch in. How many of the parents are helping out Janeta?

I did this when I was younger we took it in turns to pack bags so we weren't packing for the full time we were there. Plus like a lot of people have said they don't like their bags being packed by someone else so alot of the time you are just standing at the end watching people pack their own bags and then they still throw a little donation into your bucket

Was great fun and just a weekend spent with my friends while I also got a good feeling that I was doing somthing good (it was for the poppy appeal)