The irony

So, I've become pretty good friends with a girl that I work with and we usually go out to lunch everyday. She has a nice car so she always drives and I just ridealong with her. I'm not even hungry most days at lunch, so she'll run her errands and I'll play tetris on my phone, listen to music, read a magazine or just sit back and relax. Her youngest daughter goes to a private catholic school and recently they decided to send her to a different school. So, during our lunchbreak we drove over to the new school so that she could pick up some paperwork. I went in with her and waited while she talked to the head master or principal or head of admissions or whatever her title is. I was shocked to find out how much it costs to send a 2nd grader to private school. Not only is the tuition $4500.00 per year, but she has to buy like 5 uniforms and you MUST buy everything from them. The skirt, sweater, socks, shoes, tie, jacket - EVERYTHING has to be monogrammed. They can't even wear their own socks!! THEN - she walked over to the church and was informed that out of the 50 weeks in the school year, parishioners who have kids attending the school MUST donate 42 envelopes.

If you aren't catholic, let me explain. They pass a basket around during Sunday mass and they expect you to donate. Some people do it anonymously and drop loose money in the collection and some people put together an envelope beforehand. I never saw the value of putting it in an envelope but now I guess it's because they want "credit" for the donation. Is it even considered a "donation" if you HAVE to put money in? So, I think that's a bunch of bullshit. You have to pay all that money to send your kid to private school and then you HAVE to give money in the form of a "donation" 42 times a year? As if that wasn't enough, she tells me that whenever the school has a fund raiser, parents are expected to give at least $150.00. Apparently there are a lot of fund raisers too. THEN - she tells me that they have to do some sort of "church service" work one weekend out of every month.


At this point, my mouth is literally dragging on the ground. Not to mention that her daughter has been on the waiting list for this school for 2 years! The only reason she finally got in was because the admissions lady left the other school and came over to the one with the waiting list. When I was sitting there I heard the lady say that she was going to waive the normal requirements, ie. letters of recommendation. WHAT???? Who the hell writes a letter of recommendation for a 2nd grader? The grandparents? I cannot believe all of the crap that goes along with sending your kids to a private catholic school.

I guess I shouldn't be surprised, I was raised catholic, but I didn't go to private school. I do remember A LOT of sermons that were completely centered around giving money to the church. They have no shame! They just take, take, and take some more. It's the reason I don't go to church anymore.

So, here's the funniest part. In my head, I always had a certain picture of what families that sent their kids to private school were like. I envisioned these perfect clean cut families that sat down every night to enjoy dinner together. I pictured beautiful houses, manicured lawns, high powered jobs - basically a Leave it to Beaverish type of wholesome family.

My friend that sends her daughter to private catholic school is also the same woman that spent $600 to have a business spell done on her by a guy that practices "black magic". How about those apples? Not only that, but her best friend sends her son to the same private school and she's participated in SEVERAL spells. I wonder what the church would think of that.