It's that time of year again - the kids are heading back to school.
As the temperature dips and the nights draw in, school bags across the country are being packed with new lunchboxes and pencil cases.
And parents swap horror stories at the gates of how long they had to queue for to pick up the child's new uniform.
But one mum who recently sent her six-year-old daughter off to school for the first time was left fuming at an email from her teacher.
In it, the staff member asked her to send in all the supplies she'd bought for her daughter so they could be shared communally.
Her daughter was upset after her colour coordinated notebooks were given to other students - and the mum emailed the teacher asking for them to be returned.
But the staff member wrote back saying her daughter needed to learn how to share - and the mum admits she can be 'possessive.'
Asking for advice on what to do, she explained: "My oldest is six and this is my first year sending a kid to school because of covid.
"I got the list of supplies to buy, did the thing, and brushed over a note about not label school supplies; it didn’t explain why and I didn't want her to lose the things we bought so I just...did it anyway and didn’t really think much of it.
"I also sent my kid to school with a reasonable amount of school supplies, not everything we bought. I gave her a few pencils, not the whole box, that kind of thing.
"The first day I got an email about not labelling school supplies because the kids share them, and about sending the entire amount of supplies in so that the teacher could ration them out as needed.
"My daughter was upset that night because we spent a lot of time buying colour coordinated notebooks/folders for her as I do (I’m in college) and she was excited to be like her mum in class.
"The teacher took the notebooks and folders (I sent six each) and gave her two new ones.
"I emailed the teacher back and said I don’t mind buying extra supplies if a child doesn’t have any, but I want the stuff I bought for my daughter to be returned to her. We picked it out together and she was excited to use them.
"The teacher replied and said it was important for kids to learn about sharing through their school supplies and it was important for my daughter because it looks like she has issues sharing. She worded it more tactfully but that was the gist.
"Daughter says "her notebook" (she had a favourite) went to a boy who didn’t want it anyway because it was bright pink.
"She’s a little possessive of her stuff, sure, but she’s six and it’s her first year of school and I’m just not seeing the point of this?"
People were split over the school's demands, as one wrote: "You set up your child to think the rules do not apply to her if they do not come with further explanation.
"This way of sharing supplies was standard practice in the schools all four of our children went to and it is so all students have access to supplies."
Another wrote: "My advice is to just let this go. Send the supplies they're asking for. It's really not a big deal."
But one person commented: "In these times of COVID I wouldn't want my child to be sharing items."
"I’ve never heard of this so I assume this is an American practice of splitting items up like this (which honestly, is rude as hell) considering they didn’t even explain it and have the audacity to ask you for the ‘rest of the supplies', I’d say double down," fumed another.
