Social Distance Pinches

Years ago I wrote a post entitled, “Happy Easy-ter” and it was about me doing the very minimum to prepare for that upcoming Easter holiday. In other words, I took the “easy” way out. I had to LOL because if I even had the energy to do 1/4 of what I thought was the easy celebration back then, I would be so lucky. This year, I took a MAJOR short cut on the Easter preparations!

At the end of March, I went onto social media complaining that I wasn’t in the mood to bring out the big bin of decorations in order to get ready for Easter. I assured viewers that if they felt the same way they should feel validated in their feelings and they should be at peace with skipping the decorations this year. I said, “You do you. Don’t feel pressure to do anything you don’t want to.” But the joke was on me because the very next day after saying I didn’t want to decorate, the Catholic guilt took over and I decorated the house. To be fair, I only put out…1/4…of the decorations that we have.

I have never felt compelled or obligated to give thoughtful pinches to the teachers and faculty members at my kids’ school. This Spring, I was determined to give them something small to remind them that we were thinking of them. Now, more than ever, I certainly appreciate what they do for my children!! I’m sure many school-aged parents all across the country feel the same way. So in order to continue our tradition of showing our appreciation, I needed to be creative with how to get the pinches to the teachers since we’re not at school. I stumbled upon some items that happened to be in our school colors.

Although the cases/bags are completely whimsical, I do think some would get use out of them. Or it could be regifted or passed onto their kids. Either way, the point is to let these educators know that we’re thinking of them. I tried to think of something that could be mailed economically and pardon my selfishness - EASILY. For the past three years, we have given a plastic {Easter} egg filled with homemade sugar scrub or candy plus a joke or a page of Mad Libs. But to mail a plastic egg would be the opposite of easy, so that tradition had to take a pause.

The tags on these say, “Make Up Bag” but I didn’t see that until I was getting these ready to mail. Plus, after I printed all 30 notes to go with the pinches, I discovered a typo. I used the acronym RLT but the correct acronym is RTL - Remote Teacher & Learning. Had to use white out to correct each note.

I went to the post office twice with a sample package of the teacher gifts and the sample of the classmate gifts to determine the costs to mail each and to determine what was acceptable to mail and what wasn’t. The first quote to mail each item was over $3.50+ regardless of the teacher or classmate gift. Let’s see that is 30 educators and 20 students.

This is a “punch” pillow which was a Valentine’s Day pinch from my son’s classmate. I found some similar in an Easter theme and for those who don’t celebrate Easter, there are some with a Spring design. It was a perfect Spring pinch. Until…

I ran into a snafu for the classmate gifts that I wanted to send to all the kids in my son’s class this Spring. (Side note: When I say “I”, I mean just me. My son wanted nothing to do with this.) I thought I found the perfect item that could be mailed (see above). When I went to the post office for the second time to get another quote, I got good news and bad news. Good news: I was able to send the teacher pinches at a reasonable cost (yay!). The bad news was that the classmate gifts would still cost over $3.50 to send each because the puffy envelopes wouldn’t fit thru the slot that determines if it’s a letter or a package. Ugh! So I decided that I could practice social distancing, get exercise AND hand deliver each pinch to the 20 kids in my son’s class! It was the perfect new plan. However, as the days go by and the severity of this virus keeps escalating, my civic duty started to kick in. Even if my son changed his mind and wanted to be a part of this and ride bikes with me to deliver these, it wasn’t the best way to “Stay at home”. I decided to totally abandon giving this item to his classmates.

You may be asking why I am insisting on giving his classmates gifts, especially if he’s not interested in it. Well, it’s really funny. I find little fun things to give to the kids because the class size is small and these gifts are just a way to connect. I never thought they meant much until I found out last year that a few of the classmates actually look forward to the holiday pinches. I believe if one person is effected, it is worth the effort.

The original plan was to write a Spring note and send this punch pillow. Bummer!

I haven’t given up just yet. There’s still time to find something we can mail. But if I don’t find a little pinch, I think it will be ok. This new normal is a series of change after change after change. Some changes will be great and some will be horrible (loss of jobs, businesses closing, losing family members). Classmates who don’t get a little gift isn’t a horrible change but nonetheless, it will be a change. Some of these classmates have received little pinches for each holiday since 1st grade. I will continue to find ways to let people know that we’re thinking of them. I am a believer in the mantra - If there’s a will, there’s a way!

Pinches,

Barb