To be really irritated by Children in Need

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Don't get me wrong, I have no problem with the concept of helping CIN. But it seems that it's schools which are targeted for the fund raising. Schools which include the very children the charity is trying to help. So schools are asked to hold special days and raise money, asking those very children and families who are in need to give money they don't have. Isn't this just twisted?

Is there anyone in the UK who cannot afford to draw some spots on a child's old t shirt for dress up day and donate £1 per child to a charity specifically aimed at enriching the lives of children?

Sorry OP I think it does children good to realise there are children worse off than themselves. It teaches humanity, empathy, sympathy and above all kindness to those who are less fortunate than ourselves. I cant see why anyone would object tbh!

1. No spotty t-shirts at our school - Friday is 'dress as a superhero' day. As a f/t working parent who received 7 days notice and whose weekend was packed, I didn't have time to make a superhero costume, so ended up buying one.

1. It's not just a pound, is it? If you read the thread you'll see what CiN costs - esp for families with more than one child.

1. Teaching humanity etc is fine if the school actually teaches that (again, if you read the thread there are examples of where that doesn't happen) - although there is the argument that schools should look at spreading their major charity fundraising, perhaps to focus on local charities, as opposed to the annual, non-negotiable CiN

My dd thinks the superhero theme is ridiculous as 'most female superheroes don't wear much'. Her words.

She was threatening to turn up in bra and pants to make the point.

She's 16

Seriously though, my 4 dcs will not be getting an adult size, made in a sweat shop costume for £££-I'd rather donate the money for CiN.

BigBum, your daughter is awesome!

And it might be only a £1 but as a single mum when I had 3 at primary that's £3 even with my limited maths skills. £3 would feed us for a couple of days! Well, feed them, I'd fill up on coffee instead.

I dislike CIN and Comic Relief. Luckily DS' school doesn't do either of them.

TheBigBumTheory - You're daughter is brilliant and i agree with her, its a ridiculous theme.

Wearing pyjamas last year pissed me off too, we walk 2 miles to school and it was bloody cold and pouring down, poor DD cried her eyes out about me making her put warm clothes over the top for the walk in.

To those saying its only £1, all the schools round here are asking for £2, plus change for cake sales and games etc at lunch, so it's actually £3 a child, My mum has 5 children still at school so that's £15 before she's even worried about costumes and at a weeks notice of the theme mum and i will spend most of the week making costumes that her 5 and my 2 will wear once

I want to know who "The White Knight" is on the Chris Evans show. Whoever they are are matching the top bids of the auction this week, today that's matching 395k!!!!

The clue is tartan knight. Rod Stewart?

Say what you like about CE, this show raises hundreds of grand every year.

Would totally swap my DD being a child in need having to ask for funding for stuff for having to buy a costume or watch dull TV presenters or pay a £1.

This is one if the most depressing mean spirited threads I have seen on MN. People have said their kids were on it and still people keep moaning on about frankly minor annoyances.

Not MN at its best.

How much are the presenters paid?

The presenters are paid nothing....

Although Terry Wogan used to get a very big "bonus" payment for doing the presenting.

Oh right im confused,

I give money every month to charities, i picked charities i agree with, I wasn't swayed by big showy off force it down my throat TV.
I don't need to watch tear jerking short films to know the shitty lives some people have.

I don't know much about the charity except they funded a video called Dave Benson Phillips Makaton Nursery Rhymes.

That (now DVD) got my DD (who has disabilities) and DH and I through the first 3 years of her life by teaching her communication in the form of song. So I say thank you very much CIN and yes I will be donating my £1 as DD goes to SN school and has already benefited from this charity. :)

Saucy. Very good of you.

But the films our kids make to show what they do with the funding fron "CIN" are far more than "tear keeping short films'.

Tear jerking. Autocorrect

So what this thread is saying is:

Poorer people shouldn't be asked to participate because they're poorer
Richer people shouldn't be allowed to participate because their showy off rich
BBC presenters shouldn't participate because they're annoying people and there's a suspicion they get paid
No one should be asked for money because the economy has gone to shit

So, who should be allowed to take part MN?

And we don't have a shitty life either.

Ugly sentiments,saucy.

Anyone who freely chooses to should take part.

Parents whose children are left out of fun things at school, where they have to be, if they don't pay are not freely choosing to donate.

Makers and retailers of super hero costumes must be rubbing their hands together with glee this week, at the expense if people who didn't need or want to buy super hero costumes.

I would have thought that even if a charity close to you benefits from CIN, you'd be open minded enough to see that there are downsides to such a big charity having so much easy publicity along with the ability to pressure families through school children. My complaints against CIN are not personal either to the charities that benefit or their beneficiaries, and I can see that those charities do a lot of essential and amazing work, as do many others. It's just a shame they need to be funded through CIN in this way.

I think CIN does some wonderful stuff for some smaller charities who might not otherwise get as much funding. That they pay their staff and have money in reserves is neither here nor there to me.

BUT its pretty crap to have pressure put on via children in schools to donate x amount and to have super hero costumes that they're unlikely to wear again when parents might well be struggling financially. I have 4 dc in school, that's potentially nearly £60 if I was to go out and buy a costume for each of them. Another £8 on top for them to go in non-uniform and take part in activities. It's too much. Nearly £70 is a massive chunk of our weekly budget and there's no way we can do it so my dc will be wearing normal non-uniform. I suspect a majority of parents at their school will do the same.

Having a theme where people feel pressured to spend money that won't directly benefit the charity is not a good thing, imo.

At work so no time to post - but Woo and Towanda say it perfectly.

It seems here that the problem for many is not CIN, it is the things schools are choosing to do for it. We had one Sport Relief where the school was going to do a fun run, and announced fairly last minute that this would be superhero dress up - after some fairly honest feedback from parents this was changed to your hero, whether that be a superhero, a sports person or just someone you knew, or wearing sports kit. My two went round in their gym kit.

Anything where parents spend money on the costume (unless they would be buying it anyway) always strikes me as weird - I'd rather give that money to the charity.

The other problem with our school is that although these events are scheduled months in advance, they never seem to think we need more than a day or so to pull stuff together. Again, I blame the school for that not Children in Need.

The problems with the dress up and things feeling enforced lies with the schools surely?

I organise 2 dress up days - jeans for genes (hopefully easy as most people have jeans or something denim) and a pirate one for our local portage service (pirates because most people have something stripy, can make an eye patch or tie a scarf round their head) - but I reiterate that if anyone wants to just dress normally they can, and if they don't want to donate they don't have to.

On CIN day, the school is just having a wear your own clothes day with a voluntary contribution.

I think that some of you need to have a word with your schools.

I didn't know that about the Dave Benson Philips DVD - it was our first foray into Makaton too, awesome DVD!

Voluntary contribution in name only. Try being the only child in a class not in fancy dress, or buying something from the bake sale, or putting a pound in the tube, or playing the Pudsey related game because your mun doesn't agree with the CiN organisational or fundraosing structure

tin not tube