comic relief.......

[BONKERZ]

I have no issues giving to charity and i do think comic relief is a good was to raise money BUT its costing me a fortune.
DS has been told he has to wear red for school next friday....he has nothing red in his wardrobe so have to purchase red trousers and a t shirt, for this privilidge he has to take in £1......he goes to a school for ASD with 11 pupils so if he doesnt take part he will be the noticable odd one out! Have also been told he has to take in money to buy cakes and biscuits.
DD goes to a small play school in a village with 15 children....she has to wear red pyjamas....yet again she has none so i have had to go out and buy them....for this privilidge she has to pay £2....i could not bother but then she will be the odd one out and i will be the tight parent!
If you add on the cost of the noses and the red hair spray DS needed for his hair i will have spent £30 odd quid easy by next weekend. If it was all going to charity then i would swallow it and be done BUT its not, i reckon only about half will go to comic relief.

OK so now everyone tell me i can opt out, or that im a bore and should enter into the spirit of things! SHOCK HORROR or someone could agree that these charity days get out of hand and end up costing the poor too much just in the name of fitting in!

Our red noses have split aswell !

I love Red Nose Day [cheesey emoticon] the playground was hilarious this morning (we're doing wear something funny for money too) Lots of y6 boys in drag for some strange reason. One of them was alarmingly convincing, I thought he was one of the teachers in a funny wig.

I know what you mean and totally agree. I have had to pay £1 for DS to wear a red T-shirt to school today. The class had been talking about it yesterday and were told they were not allowed to wear anything with a picture on it, or a football top.

So they want me to pay £1, but they want to dicate what red top my son can wear?

They also had a cake stall on the way to school, so 20p for a cake, and £1 for a raffle ticket

Then DS will go to Boys Brigade tonight, where there will be another £1-£2 tonight!

Plus I was accosted by some woman while I was at the supermarket, so gave he about another £1 in change

Another split nose here too and the pin badge wouldn't stay on ds's t-shirt either.

Message withdrawn

I am now thinking i am very lucky with my school.
non uniform - compolsory
crazy hair - optional
red clothes - optional
cost -whatever we feel appropropriate

Happy days.

DS's school today had:
pyjamas, odd socks and crazy hair day
or
wear your normal clothes backwards day
we were told we could make a donation if we wished, half would go to comic relief, half to school computer fund.

I also feel glad we have a non-pressurising school

Deeeeja- is he in MS?I couldn't get ds3 in yesterday for teh same reason (he managed to be pushed through te door at lunchtime) but he was OK today- for the red silly we sprayed the back of his head red as he couldn't see it so couldn't get upset. needs must and all....
Luckily he'll be in SNU after Easter anyway.

I may have missed something (very probably locked myself out today) but I wish there had been a t-shirt or something. I had to buy a red top for DS, and donate for the priviledge of wearing it, as did a suprising number of Ds classmates. Would have been nice if charity could have benefited from the lack of red apparel! (DS only 4 - so a little too young to miss out wearing red in lieu of donation to the charity iyswim).

The Juniors had a lovely day actually; ds1 came second in the talent show (), there was a special assembly where the class ds2 is in did a rpesentation on what CR do, and I was a bit trearful when ds2 said money nees to help kids who care for other people because he was quite oblivious that he is that child and on a waiting list; the teahcers did a silly dance to the record and it as all great fun really.

Infants AFAIK was just red clothes but to e fair ds3 is minimally verbal and couldnt tell me if they ahd done anything anyway.

jazzz there was LOL, T K Maxx. I was going to get one but they areout of the way and need a special trip and just didnt get around to it.

Actually I have just checked CR website and there was a t-shirt also sold in TKMaxx. Not that I have any idea where my nearest one of those is - Sainsbury's was a bit more accessible. (Sorry for waffling)

cross posts Peachy. Will remember for next year!

At the junior school I work at the children came in pyjamas & the staff in dressing gown & slippers and we had a lot of fundraising - each class was given £10 to make a profit on - we had the usual the usual cakes sales, a soft toy raffle & Year 6 created an obstacle course that you could pay 30p to go on.

The thing that raised most money was the raffle to be Head Teacher for the morning - that got £192! The two girls who won (we thought it would be more fun for them if there were two of them) took the assembly, wrote a newsletter, held a fire drill, did some planning for next term with the assistant head and were even allowed to spend some of the budget, buying art resources. They also did a live radio interview with the local radio station & a video interview for the local paper's website.

The Head teacher meanwhile went into the Year 6 class and did not behave well.....

Altogether we have so far raised just over £1000, in a school with 230 children, and we still have the photographs I took of each child to sell next week.

Ah, does anyone else get the feeling that no matter what a school does, someone will not like it (ie, too prescriptive, too lax, did too much, didn't do enough) Could we all maybe visit some of the stories of comic relief projects that they support, and put ourselves back into the gear of perspective?

I know there's lots of debate to be had about the ethics of charity, tv appeals, commerce selling 'charity items' etc etc etc, but I have to say 'lucky' and 'schooling' should be the two things we put together for our children, when considering many children in today's world can't even go to school, let alone fret about whether they should be wearing red or not today.

rustybear that Head swap day sounds fantastic, really good idea!

pombear - round of applause to you. Well said.

I think it is really useless to moan about these things. If you can't afford it, don't buy a red t shirt or red pyjamas - keep in perspective any 'suffering' your child would endure if they were the odd one out, it hardly compares to what the spirit of the day is about.

TBH last year we didn't have anything spotty which was what ds' school were doing, and my thoughts were he could go without, which he would survive, lets face it, or we could colour in spots on an old skanky t shirt which we did. I certainly wouldn't have gone out and bought something if I genuinely couldn't afford it but there is usually/often a way round these things.

It is a worthy cause but in our office its wear your jeans for £2 but if you dont participate its £3

Then they come round put a strip of raffle tickets on your desk and say thats £2

Oh then there's someone coming round with a tray of baking at £1 per item

I really dont mind giving I really dont.. If someone came to me with a bucket I would throw £2/3 in no probs but its the attitude of the bullies charity collectors that annoys me. I have £2 maybe £3 to spare but not over £5

frasers that is rather a bullying tone I grant you but no one is going to actually punch you if you don't give the money. Give what you can and want to and not if not. If you don't wear your jeans it's simply a matter of saying "I've already donated this year". Don't see a prob with that.

YABU... It's only once a year and you should only do it if you can afford it. Do I dare admit this? I actually work for Auntie Beeb and the pressure round the workplace around RND is about 20X worse than anywhere else! In the reception area, there's already chuggers people dressed up with tins. We did an international feast yesterday where everyone brought something from their (or their parents' country of origin) and it's really uniting and creates a great feeling all round. So we might have spent more than we raised but that's not quite the point is it? It's the feeling of having united for a great cause... And there were about a billion cakes sales today through the day (I am truly and totally CAKED OUT!).

My DS had a PJ day in the nursery and it was £1 and all the staff were in PJs, had red noses and generally there was a fantastic feeling in the air. Money can't buy that... RND makes charity fun yet gets the message through about how your money is really helping the needy.

To be really cliche...

Cost of cooking for international feast - £10
Donation for international feast - £5
Donation for DS's PJ day - £1
Various cake donations - £4
Seeing how your money is helping the needy - Priceless!

So it has cost me about £20 but I will gladly spend that money all over again. Just watching any Comic Relief programme makes me cry like crazy. It really makes you realise how lucky we all are. Did anyone watch the Kilimanjaro climb yesterday? Denise van Outen summed it up for me when she said we may moan about the NHS but when you see what goes on in Africa (after watching a mother lose her little boy to malaria that is entirely preventable... ). How can we moan about spending a couple of quid for such a great cause once a year?

lol at no-one's going to punch you

on the other hand I dont mind giving at nursery as its pressure free and they have a direct link with an orpahanage/nursery in africa and we get pictures of how the money is making life better for those poor kids

Oh my god, bubbling at watching Simon Cowell (who apparently is very charitable despite his high trousers!) at the rubbish dump where 100 kids call their home and try to make a living getting stuff out of there...

I agree that when schools are too prescriptive it can be a pain - you shouldn't be having to spend money on the costume.

My school had a pyjama day, charged 50p + another 50p to buy a cake. Everyone joined in, including the head who was showing round prospective job applicants One of our teachers also had his head shaved and raised over £300. There was a great atmosphere and we raised about £500 in total.

DS's preschool had a 'wear something funny' day and a bucket for donations. Easy - he went in his spaceman costume and loved it.

No matter how hard we're trying to save the pennies we're still a lot better off than the people that events like RND are supporting.

What's to moan about?

I do understand you OP...it seems a bit pointless when mostly shops seem to benefit, rather than the charity it is all about!

We were lucky this year, I suppose...ys and ms haad to dress up in circus theme (although, a general Fancy Dress would have been easier) and ES had mufty day....
don't mind that....

apparently the staff also id a performace....I missed all that due to working!

YABU and I don't care if I get flamed. If you're 2,3 or 5 quid buys one mosquito net and saves one child from getting malaria and dying then red nose day is absolutely worth it. It is heartbreaking seeing the films of mothers losing their babies to this disease. it makes your moaning about having to spend a few quid on red nose day trivial.

lucky...but op is not against red nose day....she said she would have happily given all the money she spend on buying red things to the charity directly...which kinda would give the charity more...surely???