to think this is cheeky?

[sockatoe]

I tire of middle class parents who live in middle class areas and send their middle class children to middle class football teams sending me fundraising requests to help buy their football strips. I get that this is possibly quite expensive, but so are other hobbies, that other children (including my own) have.
I only have limited money. I love to support charities where I can, they make such a huge difference to people in need, the environment, research and so forth. But as for Chelsea and Ruben's football kits, if you want them to have it, put your Prosecco down and put your hand into your Radley handbag and pull some money out yourself.
Am I in the minority here?

What I hate most about sponsorship things are the ones raising money for a charity, the football club near here did a sponsored run to raise money for a charity but children could only take part if they had raised a specific amount of money. That's not on.

I've never heard of this. How strange. I would just say no. I couldn't afford to buy my own dcs a football kit let alone a complete stranger.

YANBU it's f*ed up
As is sponsoring people's charidee walk on the hindu kush, anything other than first marathon, teenagers foreign holidays"volunteering".

Happy to put a couple of quid in for the local martial arts club who are packing bags at Iceland so long as they don't actually touch my shopping. Happy to chip in for a sponsored something at primary school.

Don't get me started on fundraising for vets bills. Because the owners haven't got insurance.

Have to say, I’m not a big fan of charidee.

I was watching the London marathon and the coverage of the Whizz Kids charity and everyone saying how amazing they are. I’m not saying that they are not, but I’m questioning why they should have to exist.

Surely the narrative should be absolute disgust that such essential life enhancing equipment has to be provided by a charity rather than government? And also some questioning that a wheelchair costs as much as a brand new car.

Hate this too. Currently have sponsor forms for DS &DD2 to do fundraising for their (different) schools. DS brought home a sponsor form from football last night & oldest DD is to fundraise for a trip she's going on with girl guiding. We will be the only "sponsors". There have already been events this year and there will be other fundraisers along soon. We wouldn't let the dc take up hobbies that we couldn't fund. I'd rather the subs/fees were an accurate reflection of what it costs to provide the service. There is an argument put by guiding that it means everyone can be included on trips and I kind of get that. If you're hand to mouth and can send DD round family friends and neighbours then fair enough. But we are fortunate to afford it comfortably and just don't have the brass neck to approach others. DD1 will do bag packing, car washing, cake sale etc to contribute to her unit but the £x for her individual fee for the trip will be paid by us.

I haven't had the pleasure yet as my son is too young for school but it is definitely a thing at the end of the till at our local M&S. The last one I saw was for a rugby trip to South Africa! No chance am I contributing to that.

As PP's mention, money is tight for most people and as lovely as a trip like that would be, I've got more interest in paying my bills and trying to scrape together money for a family holiday (not had one in years).

Both my son's play junior football. They are both provided with full kit as part of our monthly training fees. £18/£25 each, I don't see why football kits would need fundraising for.

We need to provide boots, shin guards and goalie gloves but none of these are expensive. I wouldn't say we're middle class, and actually have quite a tight family budget but I'd never expect anyone else to pay for these costs.

I know what you mean. I refuse to donate to private school kids bag packing to raise funds for what ever activity at school. Any spare I have very will go to my own kids education thankyou very much 😠

Quite a bit of anger on this one.... So what? People are fundraising for stuff you're not interested in?

Don't donate/sponsor/respond.

Hardly worth getting worked up about really, is it?

The scouts have to fundraise for the American Jamboree even if parents can/want to pay for it.
My friends son is going and she was absolutely mortified that they had to do a bag pack at a local supermarket as part of the fundraising ( organised by another parent)
As she put it “ I’m standing here in my £500 coat asking people buying value groceries to pay to send my Privately educated son on holiday to America” BUT she wasn’t allowed to pay for the trip.
They ended up doing most of the fundraising at his school via bake sales etc at events

@hopping - but they could have thought more creatively about it - had him "sponsored" for doing jobs for their wealthy mates, or "sponsored" to work in the food bank?

@notironrock tbh There needs to be a culture change about it, though. it's not the one off, it's the bigger picture. A big the people who think its ok to basically ask for a whip round for their kids' hobbies and trips are the ones voting to keep other people's kids in poverty. So I do get angry about it.

Send 'em to that woman's vicar husband.

ihate that is what they would rather have done (and ended up doing) but some fundraising activities were group activities which they were expected to be involved with.

YANBU I can't believe this is a thing! I'd happily support a charity helping disadvantaged children access sports but not helping well off families pay for their children's hobbies!

I wouldn't mind the raising their own money so much - they could do something useful like washing cars for example but sponsorship gives the impression it's a charitable cause which it isn't.

Up to club management to find a local business to sponsor the shirts tbh

Yes I can’t stand the pressure to donate to these things! It’s very uncomfortable to leave tell a child on the end of the supermarket checkout that you don’t want to donate to their ski trip - it’s just embarrassing so I feel obliged to donate even though I don’t want to! I’m very happy to contribute to charitable causes, I just don’t want to fund other people’s holidays.

I'm with you there. Ours has a cheerleading team and the parents are forever making requests for donations. Ours don't do it, so I've put them in another expensive sport. Why should I have to pay for their outfits and travel to competitions? No-one pays for my kids?! It's crazy.

I don't sponsor other people's DC and mine aren't allowed to ask for sponsorship. DH and I add a suitable donation if we or DC are entering a charity event that assumes sponsorship.

Asking for money for hobbies and holidays is pure CFery. My sports club once did a sponsored marathon with 50% of money raised going to a cancer charity, the rest to the club. I asked for sponsorship on the basis that all would go to the charity and I'd match it to cover the 50% for my sports club.

Bastard friends and colleagues were then really generous and I was completely cleaned out!

YANBU. I've never come across this myself, but yeah, I'm not paying for someone else's kit - find a sponsor like every other team in history has had to.

I don't find the bag packing fundraisers for sports tours annoying, probably because I went on one once as an adult and it was a fantastic experience, and you don't have to donate if you don't want to.

No way will I be paying for someone else's teenager's gap year though. I haven't got to that stage yet, but I might amuse myself now by trying to predict which families do ask!

which will no doubt then be pulled down ready for the next lot of voluntourists to assemble

Never heard of this. Most football teams ask a local company to sponsor them where we live.
If they have a kid called Chelsea and use a Radley handbag they're probably not middle class

I don’t mind contributing a couple of quid towards fundraising to help kids do hobbies that their parents can’t otherwise afford. My neighbour’s kids do raffles and bag packs etc for their dance school, mum forks out a couple of hundred quid a year but no way could parents finance the theatre hire and expenses for their end of year show.

What narks me is adults fundraising to finance their hobbies. Nope, pay for it yourself. Especially when said adults try to justify it by claiming “it’s my dream” (usually to be a musician or a dancer or an actor and they want others to finance their training courses, or to travel and they want others to pay for it). Yeah well it’s my dream to own a Porsche so surely people should give me money for that too?

I once worked in an office where a woman continually spammed the entire staff with requests for sponsorship for her various activities. Eventually she put one round (over 200 people) and got a grand total of 36 quid, but still didn’t get the message. Instead she sent another round robin email complaining that she had hoped for more. I think eventually her manager told her to wind it in