Kids: School supplies shopping

Do you remember your own first day of school? All those crying and reaching out for our guardians, teachers prodding us to enter the classrooms after a dramatic good bye from our “sundo”. I can’t help but feel excitement as to Ashton’s own first day of school. Sure it is years away, 3 or 4 in fact.

But like Rebecca Bloomwood (our shopaholic heroine), I’ve started dreaming about shopping for Ashton’s first school bag, school supplies including crayons of 100 colors, cutting tools, and the latest pencil case with a famous cartoon character on it. Everything at all that I wish I had when I was a tiny human being.

The shopping centers last weekend were packed with kids, moms lugging bags of notebooks, some kids very happy – some not quiet. Maybe the latter did not get the latest Ben 10 pencil. Maybe part to blame is the commercialization of school’s first day. Heck, even the local TV news kept on broadcasting live the scenarios in flea markets – throngs of moms haggling endlessly.

Do we really need new notebooks every school year, whatever happened to which that had remaining blank sheets of paper? What about last year’s bags, uniforms, pencil cases?

I’d be the last to kill the joy of shopping for school but lest we forget not to be carried away and stress ourselves (in the future) with unnecessary school expenses. Tuition fees already took care of that.

I am making a mental note to teach my son the value of recycling, compromise, and maybe – get excited for learning and not for a spanking new lunch box. Add to that another sticky note for myself not to get too excited with school shopping.

How did you find shopping for school supplies this year?