I'll third it. It's hard enough to struggle to get an appropriate education for your kids, and the advertisting issues makes it even more murky. And the field trips that are really a cover to sign up for sports teams/classes, because the school gets a kick-back.
I feel like basically we have different values than alot of people, nothing against them, we are just a bit more "old-fashioned" with our daughter as far as what she does, watches, reads. I don't really like the direction some of the kids in the neighborhood and older siblings of some of her classmates are headed.
We do make plenty of compromises so she's not a total misfit, but some things are just black and white to us and we have to draw the line. I just remind her that there ARE other kids out there here and there being raised like her (she does meet them at summer day camps and outside classes, and it sounds like there are families out there on this forum) and when she's an adult and making her own money she can make her own choices, but for now we feel that we know what is best for her.
I'm always struggling to edit my mind to find things that I respect the school (i.e. "the system") for but some weeks are definitely worse than others.
