Has anyone else had this problem?

When the children were little, I didn't want to leave them to go out to work, but I thought that it would be good if I could find something that I could work around them. I wanted to meet people & earn a bit of money, but only when it was convenient to me and the family.

I decided to go with 'party plan'. I am not really a saleswoman, but I thought that it might suit me at the time.

I invited friends, who were party plan reps, (EG Pippa Dee clothing) to do parties in my home; and I joined 'Tupperware' and 'Amway' to try to sell to others, in their homes & and my own.

I had to buy product samples, use my fuel & car for travel, make phone calls, provide party gifts, etc, etc, so expenses were quite high. In fact, I don't think that I ever made any profit.

But my problem was that, almost every time I invited someone to a 'party', or asked someone if they would like to host a party, they asked which charity it was for.

When I said that it was my job, and not for charity, they would look quite taken aback. Some even said that they would only buy something, if the proceeds went to charity. I ended up sending money to charity, even though I hadn't made anything, because they didn't want my expenses taken into account. I gave up. It wasn't really my sort of thing, anyway, and I was losing money at something that was supposed to be generating an income (not the only time that this has happened to me )

I don't understand this. When people do a job, and earn money for it, they are not usually expected to give all that money to charity, so why, because it was 'party plan' was this the expected thing?

Don't get me wrong; I am not against donating to charity. We sponsor a child and donate to various charities. It's the fact that these were my earnings and I was not allowed to take them, without being considered rather strange and uncharitable.

Has anyone else experienced this?

hey girl - I would make a guess that this took place just about the time that commercials showed housewives doing their housework in a shirtwaist dress and in high heels. Yes ----
Well that should give you a clue - you should not have been worring your "pretty little head" with making money, not real money. Mabe just cig money. Isn't it funny that we had just gained the right to smoke about this time.

I have many friends of mine who make money selling Tupperware or other items. I would never assume any of them were doing it for charity - they are doing it to help pay the bills. It would be really odd for me, to think of a charity assumption.

Maybe it's not thought of as charity work in modern times when the economy is so bad?

This would have been in the later 1980s & early 1990s.

I was ill, as well as having the children, and I just wanted to contribute to the household finances. I had done so until the children had came along, and party plan seemed ideal ~ but it didn't work out.

The women who came to these 'parties' were earning. I did wonder, at the time, if they gave their salaries to charity!!

(By the way, never smoked, so never needed pin money for that )

I have a few girl friends who do TupperWare/Avon even gold selling parties, I never heard about charity being attached to it.

My mom did Medical Transcription from home to stay home with us while we were kids, and still work. I plan on doing the same.

Hmmm maybe it is a UK thing then, to assume home sales are involved with charity? Here I know many people who go for "walks" for charity - you donate to their cause and they go on a 5k walk or whatever with a group of people. But home sales are sales, to earn them money. In fact at many of the parties they encourage you to sign up with the same firm, "beneath them" so you can earn money and then they get a portion of your income as your "manager". So it is all definitely about money.

It may be a UK thing ~ or it may just depend on the people, I suppose.

PDM, that is disheartening to hear. I am sorry people expected you to not keep anything you worked to earn, same as they do in their own jobs. Maybe it was a norming situation per time and place as indicated by others.

I sell Cookie Lee jewelry. No one expects me to give it to charity. I CAN, if I choose, announce some of it for charity and that is fun: i get paid, and a deserving charity gets some needed cash.

But I am not 'expected' to do this. Avon sellers are not expected to do this.

BTW if anyone wants to sell Cookie Lee jewelry, PM me and I can tell you all about it and give you free training if you wanted to go further. I love, love, love it.

I'm guessing, too, it must be a UK thing.

I've been to candle parties, gourmet food parties, jewelry parties, book parties, Tupperware parties, kids toy parties, skincare and makeup parties, and even an adult toy party, but none of the proceeds went to charity. The women and men who hosted them were just having a little fun and maybe earning free items/a little cash.

I'm sorry you had that experience. To put out all that effort and expense, and then be made to feel so bad that you gave away what you earned is a shame.

Too bad I don't live there. I love to go to those things, and I'd have probably bought something, too!

Yes I agree with you. I'm not against charities, but if I am struggling myself I would not be able to donate to charity. I guess people don't want to feel guilty. The way I see it is we should give people charity, but also teach them how to do stuff for themselves. In the end life would improve. If we don't teach them they will need charity all their lives and will have to depend on it.