Out of Chaos an organizing newsletter
The Back-to-School Scam
My poor twins. I’ve been around the block when it comes to back-to-school shopping and I have (excellent) reasons for not buying all manner of things. In my work, I’ve seen hundreds of unused pencils, barely used binders and brand-new marble notebooks, so I’m skeptical of every list of school supplies my kids bring home and every back-to-school item they claim to need.
Worse than the school supplies, though, are the clothes. Why do you magically need new clothes in September? Does every kid grow so much between June and September that their clothes no longer fit? When my kids were young, I checked to make sure their clothes weren’t so wrecked from a summer of playground madness that they couldn’t wear them to school. Usually, I’d end up buying them a new pair of sneakers and maybe a pair of jeans and a few new T-shirts. Not a new wardrobe. Not, heaven forbid, a “haul.” If their clothes started looking too small at any point thanks to a growth spurt, I bought them new clothes (or went to my carefully labeled bins of hand-me-downs). Once they were in uniforms, things got even simpler: new shoes, maybe a sweater, sometimes a new backpack. Really, back-to-school is just a big marketing scheme.
I love September. It’s my favorite month. It doesn’t matter that my last name is Sullivan, it really is the New Year to me, and I love that new-beginnings vibe. I get why kids want new backpacks and binders, but I also know that it’s my job to say “No” to most of it. I want my kids to know that you don’t need to spend money on new stuff just because Target tells you to. On the other hand, I’ve spent a little extra to buy a cute notebook, because I know that sometimes the right notebook makes you feel a little more together and that’s a good way to feel on the first day of school.
My favorite thing to buy for my kids in September? A planner. I love it that you can buy a planner that goes from September to September. And I always tell my kids, when it comes to planners: the sky’s the limit! You can have any one you want!
So, ride that back-to-school, new-year vibe, get organized, make a plan…but don’t fall for all the marketing hype, ’cause it just leads you to buying a whole bunch of stuff you don’t really need.