Social media mom challenges parents’ greatest enemy: school theme days
One mom took to social media to address most parents’ greatest arch nemesis: school theme days. Melissa Radke is a mom, singer, writer and public speaker who was inspired by a flyer that came home from school with one of her children for “Red Ribbon Week.”
To her more than 130,000 Facebook followers, the mom posted a two minute rant, questioning the purpose of theme days. Not to be confused with a dislike for the school system, Radke injected humour that resonated with parents.
“I love public education and I’m not trying to make anyone mad – so don’t email me,” she says.
In her video, she reads the instructions for the week – “an alcohol, tobacco, drug violence prevention awareness campaign.” And then, she questions the goal of theme weeks as a whole.
“The goal is to encourage children of all ages to be drug free throughout their lives. That is a lie, that is not the goal, the goal is to drive moms crazy with different outfits every single day,” she rants.
While most parents consider a morning where kids are fed, lunches are packed and everyone is wearing matching sneakers a success, theme weeks add an extra element to the already hectic time of day.
The newsletter listed a theme for each week day including a camouflage day, crazy hair and socks day, and a neon clothes day. Radke asks how effective these weeks are, questioning if how a child dresses for one week will change the way they respond to future situations.
“Wednesday – we’re too bright for drugs. Wear neon. If you think toward the future, when a child is offered drugs. When they’re 20 and they become drug addicted, their parents would say, if you had dressed brighter maybe none of this would’ve happened,” she says.
With more than 13 million views and almost 200,000 shares, her humour resonated with parents across North America. While the video is funny, Radke doesn’t discredit the value of teaching children about drug addiction, but rather the way in which they are taught.
“I feel like this isn’t as effective as we want it to be is all I’m saying,” she explains.
“I don’t think some day when our kids are faced with the decision they’re like ‘when I think back to when I wore my hair, it was so crazy, and I don’t want to drugs now, so no, no to your crack – crack is whack.’”
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