(Non)Expert advice: Save the marriage & do not back-to-school shop together
If there is one thing I despise about back-to-school, it’s the shopping.
Now, let me be upfront here: If it isn’t Costco or Target and ends in ________ mall, I generally have to be dragged in kicking and screaming. For this reason, I left my kids’ school supply shopping until just a few days prior to the advent of school last year. Here’s a little tip to the procrastinators out there: you will not win. The supplies will be depleted and you will have to go to several different stores instead of just one, augmenting an already stressful situation.
Note: if you somehow find school supply shopping cathartic, I will be happy expound upon the aberration of college-lined vs. wide-lined notebooks and my goose chase to find Elmer’s Glue-all and NOT their School Glue (which is 99 percent of what the store carried) while battling a battalion of frenzied moms.
This year, I recruited a reinforcement and brought my husband Jamie. I handed him the much shorter list for my kindergartener (about 12 items) while I tackled my 7-year-old daughter’s list (my sheet included the other grades’ items as well). Things shockingly went smoothy until they didn’t.
Isn’t that how it always has to happen?….
We both finished in under 30 minutes and were on the way to the check-out when I looked down at my sheet, stopped and morosely declared “OHHH NOOOOO.”
As it turns out, I had collected everything a first grader needs for academic success but here’s the catch: my daughter was in first grade last year and is going into second grade. Who knew?
Evidently not her own mother.
The lists are, of course, completely different and so I trudged back to the school supply section, dumped my previous findings and started from scratch. I was glad my husband had at least figured it out.
Or so I thought.
When we reunited, he started questioning the veracity of the list.
“A clipboard? Why on earth would a kindergartener need a clipboard with his name on it?”
I tried to explain a few scenarios but he then threatened to boycott some other items as well.
“Jamie, if it’s on the list, we have to buy it. It’s like the commandments–you can’t pick-and-choose which ones to follow.”
He seemed to get it and grumpily purchased the good-for-nothing clipboard. When we arrived home, I started labeling the items with my children’s names and double-checked to ensure we bought everything.
He didn’t.
“Jamie, where are the 10 glue sticks?”
“We have a ton of glue sticks.”
“No, we don’t.”
In his defense, I could have appeared on an episode of Hoarders for my glue-stick fetish but that was a few years ago and rehab taught me only three glue sticks per household was necessary.
“What about snack-sized Ziploc bags, Jamie?”
“We have those as well.”
“We only have quart- and gallon-sized.”
“Same thing.”
And then came the colored pencils, which he also neglected to purchase. His defense?
“That was not on the list.”
“It was item No. 1.”
{Silence. Chirping crickets.}
Tomorrow, I’ll be returning to the store.
And next year, the back-to-school supply shopping battle will be waged alone.
Photo: Getty Images
I strongly dislike school supply shopping. While perusing the list, like Jamie, I question, why do they need this? What’s worse is how specific it is. I seriously *have* to buy an orange folder? Yellow won’t do?
The school, works with some website, to sell you the complete list of supplies, and I may take them up on that one year. Problem is there is a deadline to order before.
Good luck!
Maybe next year I’ll just buy the complete list of supplies. I honestly don’t know how moms with multiple kids do it–chaos!
I didn’t see the part in her post was to why I was dragged to the store in the first place. I was told that there would be thousand parents in the school supply isle and as a result I had to come to battle for my kid’s school supplies. What I found at WalMart was MAYBE three parents on four isles and a complely organized store. They even had bins with the different schools supply lists. The only thing WalMart didn’t do for you was put the supplies in the cart for you. And WHY would a kindergartner need 10 glue sticks?
They need to have extra on hand for eating.
This could have been written by me. Seriously. My husband and I were up in arms over back-to-school shopping…he kept grabbing things that weren’t on the list and refused to buy what WAS on the list. Got to love that.
Dearest Husband Dragged to the Store–
It was an uncharacteristically quiet night at the store. Once you add complete chaos and crowds, trust me it is an entirely different dynamic.
XOXO
Solo Shopper
I bought our Kindergartener’s supplies 3 weeks ago. I stalked the schools website and as soon as the list went live….I went shopping. I visited 5 stores and spent $99.
My husband who I charged with the care of our children while I completed the scavenger hunt….questioned everything on the list and also wanted to buck the system.
There is a very good reason that I’m in charge.
Not to brag, but this year I took my husband and kids with me and uncharacteristically we all survived and didn’t fight. Now I am kinda freaked out, waiting for the other shoe to drop so to speak.
Thank goodness I just needed to get things for the teens, which is WAY different in high school. Goes like this:
Me: Hey, what do ya’ll need?
Them: *shrugs* Pens… maybe some notebooks. Whatever you find.
Me: Special colors? Pens? Pencils?
Them: MA…. I’m online… get whatever.
SO much easier… next year I’m getting Joey some pink notebooks with Ponies on them. I figure I’ll end up with them by the start of school anyhow, might as well get something I like.
Funny! I hear you loud and clear. My husband – if he knew- would be cranky about what is on our lists- and I learned a long time ago ( I have much older kids than you) to either do it myself or only take one kid with me at a time. More than one and chaos reigns.
Good luck with that return trip. Oh- and another thing I learned was to buy multiples because they always seem to need replacements mid year and the supplies are NOT on sale then. I have a bin and two drawers of markers, pens, pencils, crayons, paints, notebooks, paper, rulers, scissors, and 40 glue sticks. (okay- just teasing about the 40 part)
Oh no!!
I, too, am the Master List Keeper and Purchaser of All Items. The only items that needed labeled this year were her backpack and pencil box. My hubby got to use his label maker. It was a win-win.
I learned my lesson from the PRESCHOOL item list, and got it done as quickly as I could so as to allow time to find the random item. I lucked out this year and was able to get it done in one day! And I only went to two stores! I squeaked in at $98.08, not counting the backpack and obligatory new clothes for school. After seeing the list, I was hoping to get this done under $100.
Oh, and Claire’s school requires EACH Kindergartener to bring TWENTY GLUE-STICKS.
I have a real-life story problem for you that results in the school getting OVER A THOUSAND GLUE-STICKS on Back-to-School Night…and there’s a note saying that we’ll be asked for MORE glue-sticks after Winter Break.
I’m not kidding.
I’d think they were using them as snack, but that’s listed as a separate item on the checklist.
It’s a conspiracy.
I would suggest to our PTO to put together “pre-packaged school supply packs” like other schools do so that parents can just pay for the supplies as a fund-raiser. But, I’m afraid I’d be put in charge of it…
I love how teachers demand you buy a specific brand?! Isn’t glue glue?
Next year? You would dare to send Jamie alone?