Aibu to not want to fill a smarties tube with £1 coins

[Invisimamma]

This will be outing if any parents from my child's school are on here...

Both children came home from school and nursery today with a tube of smarties each as a gift from the PTA with instructions to eat them and fill the tube with £1 coins or 20p, letter specifically states not coppers or 5/10ps. Apparently the tube will hold £12 of 20pences.

There will be a prize for the class who brings back the most money.

Now I have a few issues with this:

1. my friends child has a diary allergy was really upset he can't eat his treat (she didn't know this was happening so couldn't provide an alternative)
2. we still have lots of Easter chocolate and don't need more
3. dp and I both work but childcare and other costs are crippling us at the moment and we're skint, an extra £24 is really beyond us just now
4. we've just paid £46 snack money to nursery and £12 for a school trip for one and £8 for a trip for another (amongst lots of other recent school costs)
5. does anyone even has coins lying around the house anymore? I use contactless payment for almost everything and don't draw out cash.

The children have been hyped up about it and both have said they need to raise money for the school. I guess I'm feeling guilty that we're not in a position to participate/it's a pain in the arse idea.

I doubt the pta are that evil - they wouldn’t expect anyone to do it if they can’t afford it. I do think unwise to run an event that people can’t opt out of, it’s a good point to note but there is no malign intent.

You must explain to the dc they have negligible chances of winning.

My dds school did something like this and it was actually pretty good.
The kids had 3 weeks to 'earn' as many 20p's as they could by doing jobs for friends/family to fill up their smarties tube and there'd be a prize for who got the most. My DD only 'earned' a couple of pounds worth because a-I'm skint and b-i never have cash like you op! But the way her school worded it was there was no pressure to fill the tube.

How old is your child? By year 5/6 you find yourself oblivious to it all!

That is shocking! I hope our school doesn’t get wind of this idea. I’d probably just replace with new tubes and send them back! Or roll up a note saying no chance and send back!

Our school announced a party for the class that raised the most once - and then never actually awarded a party.

Ugh I can’t wait for my DS to start school and have all this crap. Im lucky enough that £12 isn’t a lot of money for me but seriously, I’d rather just write them a cheque for £12 or even better, do an online transfer ... I hardly ever use cash these days and it would take us an absolute age to fill a tube with coins so it would just mean more hassle for me, going to a cash machine and then trying to buy something small to break the note and asking for lots of change - what a faff.

My boys school have done this too. We’ve ignored it

I’ve seen other versions of this scheme where it’s any coins too, it is funny that they’ve added a prize and specific coins. The earning for jobs from extended family idea is better too...

You could be the parent who speaks up with your very valid reasons why they should not be doing this. You would make many other parents happy, although it’s unlikely you’ll ever get the credit for your good deed!

The kids had 3 weeks to 'earn' as many 20p's as they could by doing jobs for friends/family

I like this idea. Don’t feel so bad about making DC earn his 20ps now!

This lacks so much imagination, made me chuckle. ‘Here fill this tub with money.’

Stick a rolled up list of decent fundraising ideas in there Op

I've had a few of these and never put in anything larger than a 20p.

Ignore and email the PTA reminding them not everyone has the money to do this, fundraising should be inclusive not just easy to count.

I'm so glad mine are out of primary school.

That's terrible and grabby and puts much pressure on parents. Some who have 2 or more kids! (And low salaries and high outgoings!)

Cheeky feckers. I would fill the smarties tube with gravel if it were me!

So rude.

Hell I don't miss this (mine have left school now!) Me and DH always had our hand it our pockets when ours were at school. Week in, week out, the school were begging for money!

The baking class did MY head in. 'mom..... I need X, Y, and Z ingredients for school for a cake we have to make.' Rarely got any change out of a £20 for all the stuff needed.

We did that as a fundraiser, but any coins, not just £1 or 20p, and we didn't say it had to be filled right up! But we also got the children to do a graph chart of the smarties, to see which colour there were the most of, and the charts were then used in school for the math lessons which was fun. Nobody minded, at least they didn't complain to me.

Fill it with the green Waitrose tokens and a note to say they can choose which of the 3 charities it goes to.

Stick a rolled up list of decent fundraising ideas in there Op

@dinogreen exactly on months I'm feeling more flush I'd rather just transfer £10 direct to pta bank account, whole thing is such a faff!

I know that there's no malicious intent behind it and it probably will raise a lot of money for the school but it's just not sitting right with me. I'm glad I'm not just being a misery guts and consensus seems to agree with me.

When I was at school it was fill the tube with threepenny bits. Equivalent to coins worth 1.25 pence in decimal currency.

Even with inflation, filling the tube with £1 coins is a bit steep.

I don't think a £1 coin would fit. 20p's are the right size iirc.

Ignore their instructions. Put in coppers, for the sake of your child. Personally, I think it's a very cheeky idea.

I would set the ds a couple of small chores if they want to earn 20p and put in maybe a pounds worth in each tube, if you want to. Then the ds have learned that you have to earn money first, you cant just give other peoples money away (even if it is their Mum and Dad) which means that they will think carefully about the causes they get asked to donate to in the future. They also learn that money doesnt grow on trees, and everyone has to budget. They also get to join in with taking their tubes into school and helping out their school. Also full tubes dont make cool jingly sounds when they are shaken like part full tubes do. So they get to have fun making music with their smarties tubes on the way to school when they take them back... some retorts for them if anyone is snide about not filling the tube

YANBU

I wouldn't fill it up to start with but I will put 60p in for the price of Smarties.

I will tell my child not to expect to win but at least they have something to bring.

I don't like the idea at all.

Two 20ps stacked fits in the £1 coin slot on trolleys so if we’re going by that then it would take £30 to fill a smarties tube with £1 coins!

Wow that is cheeky. I don't know why they don't say see if they can fill them up with penny's and give a small token prize e.g a biscuit for the child who finds the oldest penny etc. I'm sure most people have a few odd penny's they wouldn't mind popping in. If every child just brought 5p each that would be a hell of a lot of money for not much effort.

We have had that, several times... to support people living ñ in poverty...

In the middle of the worst hardship we ever experienced after I lost my job... I found it so bloody inconsiderate we just ate the smarties and pretended we had lost the tube.

But even if I had been working... who on Earth has the time to go and get £12 of 20p coins from the bank? Schools come with these stupid schemes which assume every home has a SAHP to run errands and deal with nonsense.