An Open Letter to Parents in my Fourth Kid's Class

Dear parents in my fourth kid's class:

My son’s #2 pencils won’t match and are not in a box.  There's not even 36 of them.  His "box of colored pencils" are the sharpened ones from last year and are in a rubber band.  His "8 ballpoint pens" work, but don't match, and the last one I found in the couch.  I think he's using the tool box he got handed down to him for Kindergarten from an unknown sibling.  We rummaged around and found ten perfectly good glue sticks, of various sizes, some of which have never been used.  Last year's "pee-chee" folders are looking great, even though "color coded" includes two greens - look closely, one is a slightly darker green.  He didn't use his whole sketchbook last year, so that puppy's going back to school in an effort to save at least one tree.

My point is, I can imagine that you might be horrified about his collection of school supplies, and the fact that I aim for "good enough" as far as getting everything on the list by the first day of school.  It took the third kid for me to realize that there was a considerable amount of waste happening every year, not to mention the strain on my mental health, by buying everything brand new and breaking my back hitting three different stores to find the exact item requested.  I do not judge you if you are doing that - I did it almost perfectly for many years.  But I have ten plastic rulers in my collection!  That's ten too many.  If you need one, let me know! 

I'm writing to you today to ask if you could do me one favor - maybe mention to your kid that everyone's school supplies may not look the same, or brand new, on the first day of school.  Maybe some families are "true recycling Oregons".  (Pronounced "OR-I-GOAN" - I know it's Oregonian, we just like saying it that way).  Or better yet: check your supplies from last year, and save your sanity by seeing what could be used again.  "Good enough" is not such a bad place to hang.