HOULTON, Maine — Lisa Marquis of Houlton acknowledged last week that sometimes, back to school time is her “least favorite” time of the year.
Her four children, ranging in age from 9 to 17, all attend different schools in the area, although she declined to say what schools out of fear of stigmatizing them.
She said it is sometimes difficult to find the money for new clothes for the school year and to buy all of the supplies that her children need for the classroom that some teachers jot down on lists.
“When I went to school, none of the teachers ever passed out these classroom lists that are coming out now,” she said. “You just went to school with a few notebooks and pens. You didn’t need pencil boxes and different types of calculators. Back then, the school supplied the calculators.”
It is especially expensive to outfit her teenage son, she said, who feels like he has to have new clothes each year to fit in.
“I do the best I can, but it is not easy,” she noted. “Some years I can spend upwards of $400 on back to school clothes and supplies.”
Janice Miller of Presque Isle said she could sympathize. She acknowledged that she has three teenagers at home, all of whom take advanced math classes and need expensive calculators and want “high end” clothing.
“I bought into that for awhile, but finally I had to put my foot down,” she said. “I give them each a budget of $200 per year, and I have stuck to it. They complain and whine each and every year, but I don’t care.”
Elise Henderson, another Presque Isle resident, also has two teenagers in the local district and said that she has to work “starting at the end of the previous school year” to put away money for back to school supplies.
“I try to shop at as many discount shops as I can and watch for early back to school sales,” she said. ‘But it is tough, I agree. It seems like the prices on clothes just keep going up.”
