"I'll be scouring the charity shops the following January."
See, this is the thing. This stupid Christmas jumpers nonsense just puts more pressure on parents (mothers really, let's face it) to either
- spend money
- do clever and labour- intensive things to avoid spending money (like "scouring the charity shops" the second one Christmas is over)
- be the curmudgeon that says "we aren't doing that"
- and ALL of those things take resource from the parent (mother) personally, AND out of the family, for NO FUCKING REASON because
- the jumpers look objectively horrible
- and they DO NO GOOD TO ANYONE. the connection between the charity and the horrible jumper is entirely notional; actually, spurious.
When I say "take resource" I mean it all really adds up. I am astonished by how much non-academic nonsense primary schools throw at parents to do, and I wonder how on earth those with children manage the equivalents for their own children, and I wonder why having to do all sorts of nonsense the night before things at 1am doesn't make them think. All this crap takes energy or money or some sort of Marxist labour / cash / hour-joule that I wish existed for the analysis of this sort of thing, that would FAR better be used for something else, whether inside the family or facing outwards for someone else.
I mean I don't mind helping my children with their education. Clearly that is part of my job. Then there is a whole other sort of "WOO, COMMUNITY!" job that has nothing to do with actual practical things for your general, wider community, like food banks or whatever, but sort of phatic bonding exercises.
I suppose successful communities usually do these, but primary schools are unusual (unique?) in that the actual members of the community rely so heavily on the labour-joules of others for these activities, others who won't even be there and already have actual other jobs. All this "WOO! COMMUNITY!" stuff I think is frankly, too expensive, of my time and money (the adult-family-joule that I think needs to be posited and defined), and if they really want such an emphasis on this in the school they should shift the balance to more things that the children could actively do themselves, or with the help of teachers only.
In fact now I think about it, thinking about the distinction between the school (that your children go to) community and the Community-community, I can feel a conspiracy theory coming on. How do you engage with your community? Well this, and that, and .... then ... ultimately there is going to come a point where your interests, beliefs and commitment lead you to politics. Then, you will have clarity on what political campaigns will have a direct impact on your community, for better or for worse. Then if you have the adult-joules (time / money / labour) to get involved - and lots of you do this - THINGS COULD CHANGE.
OH NO! Far better they "scour the charity shops in Jan" for NEXT YEAR'S CHRISTMAS JUMPERS.
Otherwise, you know, we would be letting our children down.