When Zach brought home all of the information from his various classes at the beginning of the school year, I made a list of all the supplies needed for each class. In addition to the standard items like notebooks, folders and pencils, he needed colored pencils, a flash drive, a TI30 calculator, graph paper and combination locks. Surprisingly, though, the class requiring the most expensive supplies turned out to be choir.
There are three choir concerts during the school year and the boys are required to wear black pants, a white dress shirt, a tie and dress shoes to these concerts. Because he plays in several piano recitals each year, Zach is unlucky enough to already own a pair of dress shoes, which is lucky for me since I hate shoe shopping for my boys and the choir teacher has pointed out no fewer than half-a-dozen times that no tennis shoes are allowed. I headed to Target to find the shirt and pants and judging by the depleted stock of size 14 black pants and XL white shirts, I was not the only one spending over $50 on two articles of clothing that would be worn exactly three times before they were outgrown.
Imagine my surprise when the rehearsals for the second concert started and Zach brought me a note from the choir teacher saying that gee, the kids are working really hard and learning new songs for the Disney-themed concert and gosh, wouldn't it be fun and wacky if the kids all wore matching t-shirts with a Disney logo on them for the low price of $10? I thought, um, of course it wouldn't. I have a perfectly good pair of almost-new black pants and a white shirt hanging in the kid's closet specifically for choir concerts. I even ironed goddammit!
Assuming it would be useless for me to complain, I filled out the t-shirt order form, wrote out the check using my 24-pt. "I'm Annoyed" font and handed it to Zach. It was then that I noticed that I could be generous and offer to pay for one, two, or even more shirts for other kids who may not have the financial means to purchase an extra shirt at this time. Okay, so if the school thought that some families might be financially inconvenienced by having to purchase a $10 t-shirt after they've already bought the previously required dress pants, shirt and dress shoes, wouldn't a person with as little as 25% brain function think maybe the matching $10 t-shirt idea is stupid? I guess this says a lot about his choir teacher.
I didn't offer to pay for any additional shirts because I was hoping that if enough kids didn't turn in their order forms and money maybe they would chuck the whole idea into the incinerator and just let the kids wear whatever they already owned. Unfortunately this did not happen and Zach brought the shirt home on Tuesday, the day of the concert:
2 comments:
Have to vent "off topic" for a sec. Why does Target always fail to stock clothes for the not yet a man but older than a tween boy? Something that's NOT garanimals, sporting a superhero character or with elastic in the waistband would be nice. I don't think the issue is that they are sold out, I think they don't stock them - period. Seriously, have you EVER seen a Men's XS on the rack?? Or is that simply too emasculating?
I have realized that I would rather shop for my own jeans on a daily basis than try to find clothes for a thin 13-yr old boy. You're right Sandra, there is NOTHNG! I don't want a t-shirt with a ninja symbol or a skateboard on it, but I don't want a shirt that fits like a 4-man tent either.
I want to smack clueless people without teenage boys that make generalized comments like "all boys dress so sloppy and their clothes are so baggy." Well morons, if the clothes weren't baggy I suppose you'd be saying "Oh look at that poor boy wearing pants that are way too short and a shirt that says 'Pokemon Is Cool.' His mom dresses him like a six-year-old!"
Stupid Target and their stupid clothes.
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