Would paying more for school events as a LP annoy you?

[NotWeavingButDarning]

I'm not sure if I'm being unnecessarily touchy about this.

At my DC school there are very few LP. I am the only one in either of my DCs classes.

Almost all families at the school are pretty well off and include a non-working parent. Obviously I (and the few other LPs) are significantly less affluent than most.

But at almost all school events I feel penalized for being single. For most paid events there will be a 'family' ticket that means one parent goes free, while I have to pay full price for me and the DC. There is soon to be a fundraising dinner for the school. Tickets are 30 each or 55 for a couples ticket. I told a friend I wasn't going because I'm fed up of getting the short straw for being single. She told me I was being pathetic. I know it's only a fiver, but it annoys me.

Am I being ridiculous?

Can you team up with a different lone-parent and buy a couples ticket for the two of you?

But I don't think it's a hugely unreasonable situation. If I am at the supermarket and satsuma bags are "buy one, get one half price" but I don't want two bags because as a family we won't eat 2 bags before they start going off - so I only buy one bag and I don't feel hard-done-by compared to shoppers who can bulk buy. How is this different?

I understand why you're frustrated. It's a similar situation accommodation for holidays, or trips to do activities etc. It's the fact that two parents together is still viewed preferentially that frustrates me.

I'm a LP. I'd see 1 ticket for £30 as a saving of £25!!!

With family tickets I'd just buy one it it was cheaper or team up with another LP.

My friend and I use to get family tickets for days out. My ds is disabled so I get a free career ticket.
Usually it was cheaper to get family if 4 ticket for 1ad and 3 ch and we just divided whole cost by 5 as a per person cost and both friend and I would do as much kid watching as the other!

Air tours do a specific LP deal for holidays.
If you have more than 1 child you can still get free child place as first 2 people will count as adults.

The only time it's unfair and you are paying more is if they say £50 for 1 parent but £30 for 2!

This doesn’t happen at our school and I agree it’s unfair. Suspect one of the reasons could be that lots of couples don’t attend events together and just one will go, and the school, or PTA if it’s PTA events, are trying to incentivise both going, to raise more funds.

Have you raised the issue?

That logic doesn’t stack up youarenotkiddingme. OP is paying more per head than each person in a couple.

I'd actually email the school about this. It's pretty unfair and I'm guessing it's a PTA ploy rather than a school one. Perhaps school will then point out how inappropriate it is to the PTA. You could always do an anonymous email if you feel that you don't want to be labelled as a troublesome parent.

I was a single mum at a quite posh village school in the 90s, there were hardly any other LPs at that school. I used to feel embarrassed and poor (despite having a good job and doing OK), other parents were rather into lots of skiing holidays, dinner parties that I wasn't invited to and Chelsea tractors... A lot of them are divorced now.

Yeah I agree it's more per head.
By so are everyone who is attending as 1 person (maybe spouse works abroad or can't attend due to working hours etc).

But less heads still means it's cheaper per family.

It's pretty common practice for group tickets to attract a discount as it encourages more heads which increases revenue.

She's still not paying more though overall.

I'm a LP so know how unfair it can feel. But feeling unfair and being unfair are entirely different.

It's comparable to only child. 2 adults and 1 child is often the same price as 2 adults, 2 kids family tickets.

Or childcare offering sibling discount.

If you want to feel hard done by, you'll find a way.

Yeah fair play. I think it was just an unusual volume of similar situations over the past few weeks that started to grate.

And yes it's generally the PTA rather than the school. They are exclusively non-working mums (all PTA meetings are coffee mornings etc so impossible for working parents to join) and I'm sure this just never entered their heads.

No big thing.

Obviously I (and the few other LPs) are significantly less affluent than most

How do you know? That’s a bit of a sweeping judgement unless you know everyone’s income. I know very wealthy LP’s, and couples who are very much struggling. It isn’t obvious at all.

Raise it with the school. You may find you will get a lot of support from other sides- there’s bound to be people who can’t get childcare, parent is working late/shifts/away etc. Dh and I can rarely go to events , let alone together as I’m either on late shift, and even if I’m not, who minds the kids?