Posted on 08/12/2018 7:32:33 AM PDT by DoodleBob
Staples 1996 Back to School commercial featuring a Christmas classic as the soundtrack, a happy parent, and glum kids.
A few years ago I had to enter a public school for a Scouting thing and WHAM!! The smell triggered memories of my youth.
“I suspect many parents truly are happy to be RID of their children come September. These are likely the same pro-abortion parents who send their kids off to camp all summer and vote for confiscatory rates of taxation so the government can do THEIR JOB, be it in the realm of education or morality. These parents are truly loathsome.”
Yep, that was my mother (parents had split up for good when i was young. About 5-6 years old. Mother got custody of us kids). I do not know if she was pro abortion, but she was a democrat as was everyone else in her family (i was the first republican in my family). She saw school as a free of charge babysitting service. Nothing more. She didnt give a damn about my schooling
And then when summer vacation came, against my will she enrolled me in one month of sleepaway camp and one month of day camp. I hated the both of them. Sleepaway camp was much worse to my psyche. With day camp, at least i got to go home in the afternoon and was home on saturdays and sundays. At sleepaway camp you were hundreds of miles away from home for a whole month. Shacked up in a cabin with dozens of strangers, some of which became your bullies, including some of the counselors.
She put me in camp simply because she wanted to be rid of me and out of her hair for the summer. To her, camp was just another babysitting service for her. She didnt care if i liked it or hated it, had a good time or not. And out of all the campers, i was the one who got the least amount of mail as my mother hated to write letters.
Because of summer camp i never enjoyed my summer vacation off from school. Only one week after school ended, i had to start camp. And after the last day of camp, i had only 2 weeks or less before the first day of school started. That was it.
I have met people who couldn’t be happier when school starts to the “rug rats” are finally out of their hair and they can get on with their selfish, shallow lives.
Our children are now all adults but my wife and I were out shopping and saw the store was stocking school supplies. I felt a bit of sadness because even at my age it means Summer will be over soon. We loved having our children home for the Summer, maybe because I always had great times during my Summer vacations and never wanted them to end.
I was always ecstatic at school starting again, a bit sad that I couldn’t sleep in and have another lazy day, but overall happy to be getting back to learning and seeing friends and being around others.
My girls were a bit more mixed bag. I remember them having pictures outside the house on the first days etc but supply buying wasn’t something my wife planned for at the end of summer - it was more strategic than tactical. She waited until the end of school start season and then stocked up for pennies on the dollar for the next year instead. There were some clothes buying ventures but for the most part the girls saw the “plan ahead” approach instead of the “gotta go buy this” approach.
Wife used to get really upset when the supply lists would come out and something was on it she hadn’t planned for. The girls would be “it’s on the list, we have to have it”. Wife would be “for what?” I mostly noticed it with newer and newer calculator requirements. Basically new features they would never use in college let alone pre-college.
Yeah, the dad in the commercial is white, seems like a normal person, is responsible (buying school supplies for his kids,) he’s fun, and he has a sense of humor. You’re right. Such a commercial would probably not air today.
Those stony-faced kids are the best part of that commercial.
Having seen some of the lists of stuff the kids have to get to start school nowadays,I’m not at all sure it’s a happy time for anybody. I never liked having to start back to school,but in those years,we didn’t have to furnish near as much as they seem to now.
Well said. We have looked at homeschooling, but we are in a situation that makes that not on our RADAR now. To be sure, some of the brightest kids I ever knew were homeschooled, and for good reason. PS glad you broke those cars in!
And those *6* crayons lasted you the whole year.
Do they even sell gateway anymore?
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.