It's that time again!

I am not a lessons mom. My kids do not go from piano lessons to Spanish lessons to golf. Boy is in school and Taekwondo, and Girl takes tumbling, and that's it. I still feel so crazy busy that I can't even breathe.
Then why am I swamped with crappy fundraiser catalogues? Less then a month ago Boy's dojo had a stinky candle sale with only $3 of the $7.50 going to the school. As I am allergic to perfume, we didn't buy any, but sold some to family members. I really objected to the idea of a Taekwondo fundraiser because we're not given a break on the monthly tuition or cost of gear. The instructor wants to buy new equipment for the school. Not that the equipment is in bad shape or even lacking, he just wants to attract new students. Um, I am supposed to pimp my kid out as a candle salesman so his privately owned business can become more of a money-making machine?
Then, last week Boy came home with a catalog from school. The first line: "It's that time again." By which I think they mean it's time for me to be guilted into buying crap I don't want to support Boy's school. Well I am all over that, it's a good school that I don't pay for. I'll gladly collect box tops, 20 oz. Plastic bottles and Campbell's Soup labels. I'll even overpay for wrapping paper and crazy crafty stuff that doesn't appeal to me, because honestly the days of selling $2 candy bars and standing in front of Dominick's with a tin can for "tag day" are still fresh in my mind along with the hefty Catholic school tuition that came along with living in the heart of Chicago.
And tonight, Girl comes home from tumbling with the EXACT same catalog, that says the EXACT same thing, and I get mad. Real mad, because damn it, here is another stupid privately owned company, that I am paying lots of money to wanting my two-year-old to peddle cheap crappy shit to add to their business. And I can't even sell this stuff at work, because every school, sport, and club sells the exact same crap from the exact same catalog.
But then I take a deep breath. Yeah, I'm paying $9 a lesson, but it's only $9 a lesson and they have awesome equipment, at least 7 trampolines a block pit all manner of beams, bars, vaults, and weird things I don't even understand (which is a far cry from my classes at Scottsdale Park with there 3 mats, 1 beam, 1 vault, and the boys parallel bars set up like uneven bars). Not to mention the fantastic instructors that let Girl move up to the next classes because she was physically ready, not caring that she wouldn't be old enough until the end of October.

What ever happened to bake sales?