Trash Talk

With the start of the new school season, most all parents get a deluge of notes from teacher/school administrators/PTA, etc. in the back pack home. I pride myself in trying to be organized. Set up folders for the keepers, write down future dates right away, and toss anything unnecessary right then and there. I am a Parents Magazine dream. Or so I thought. Today we got the Box Top note, reminding us to collect those tops on the side of cereal boxes and earn our school money.

I love fundraising as much as the next Mom and Dad, ( not so much) bake sales, car washes, teacher dunks booths, I am there. But this summer Box Tops did me in. Why can't the company just donate the money without the tops. Don't they know how many boxes are sold, can't they be tallied at the register locally and just emailed into said company and money then sent to schools. What do they do with all these box tops, the waste!

Don't get me started on what I see now as a Box Top takeover. It used to be just cereal boxes. It was fun. Now they are on frozen vegetable boxes, yogurt, toilet paper, and grape jelly bottles. Some are tiny, you might miss them, they are hard to peel and cut off, but they are there. I cannot simply just throw away my trash anymore without an inspection. WAIT!!!!!!, does that hot dog come with a Box Top!!!
Don't cut through it!!!, they won't accept it!!! I don't even enjoy the product I am using with the Box Top  anymore. All I think about is what if I forget to cut that top out. I'll never remember...I should just do it now. We have a lot of boxes with holes in them until the item is ready to be tossed in the trash, inspected again of course.   I am certain that a big part of my summer has been devoted to Box Top collecting, cutting, caring for, storage, etc, without me even be aware of this addiction.

Some items  even have DOUBLE Box Tops, which sort of makes me giddy, then feeling insane as I put them in the canister on the kitchen table. Oh, wait, have they expired?? Gotta check! Most of the expiration's aren't for 3 years, so if I just bought yogurt, I think I am good, but seriously, an expiration date? How does a Box Top go bad? What difference does it make to said company if they are donating the money.

Not that I will stop. I have to. There is no way I can in good conscience throw away a perfectly good Box Top and be able to sleep peacefully.  Not happening in my house.  My son actually might win a pizza for his classroom for the most Box Tops. We just can't be beat!!!!