The One Where I Rant

Here is an email I got recently from Tanner's school. 

Mini-Fundraiser-iPod Friday!
Tired of lengthy, expensive fundraisers! Boy, have we got good news for you!  In lieu of a one large, involved, expensive school-wide fundraiser, the Administration has decided to have “mini-fundraisers” throughout the year. The mini-fundraisers will allow the students to “buy-in” to an activity or special event. For example, this Friday will be iPod Friday. For $3.00, students can rock-out to their favorite tunes during passing periods, lunch, and even in class if their teacher allows it!

Remember to send $3.00 with your child so he/she can participate in the fun this Friday! Wristbands will be sold during all lunches this week!

(I highlight and "bigged" that sentence myself.)

Hello? 
Fine there is a fundraiser.  I understand the point.  BUT

Why do I have to remember to send three dollars with my child?   My child earns allowance (most weeks).  If he wants to bring his i-pod (which he will lose) to school then HE should remember to dig the three bucks out of his wallet (if he can find it) and participate.
This is how kids are enabled to never grow up.  We hover over them and help them.  I quit.  If Tanner forgets this activity then he will not get to bring his i-pod.  He will be disappointed. 

Guess what?  (Chicken butt.  Kidding.)  It is better for him to forget his money and be disappointed now about i-pod (give us your money) day than it is for him to be disappointed as an adult because he "forgot" to pick up his kid at day care and CPS took her away.

This is the same philosophy which allows me to sit idly by while one of my kids gets a zero for work he did and left at home.  Again.  NOW is the time to learn that lesson.  Not when he is a surgeon and forgets to bring a scalpel to work.  (The thought of Tanner doing surgery gives me nightmares.)

I will be the first to admit.  I sometimes forget and let myself get all worked up trying to find a way to acquire some item a kid didn't tell me he needed until the last minute.  BUT I really TRY not to do this.

I love my kids, but sometimes failing is the only way to learn.

When are WE going to learn as parents and teachers that disappointment is ok?  When will we remember to stop hovering?  When we will remember their lives are not going to be all bubbles and rainbows? 
They won't all make the team.
Everyone can't always make an A.
Sometimes doing what you want means you will get into trouble.

Ok. I am done ranting now.  I am going to go eat cookies.
Come back tomorrow for more regularly scheduled stupidity.
BUT before you go, do you have any "mean" parenting tips I could use as my own?