In America, “back to school” means one thing for parents: lots of shopping. Infamous, multi-page school supply lists have frazzled moms and dads running around frantically trying to stock up before the first day of school.
It’s a phenomenon that’s not nearly as common in the rest of the world.
Italian husband gets first experience with American back-to-school shopping
Jessi and Alessio Pasini are popular content creators who have built a huge following sharing the day-to-day of their marriage and family life. Jessi is American and her husband, Alessio, is Italian.
They get a lot of hilarious mileage out of Alessio’s culture shock regarding American customs. He’s lived in the United States for a little over a decade—and in fact, the two met while working in New Orleans—but having spent the majority of his adult life in Europe, there’s still a lot he’s getting used to.
For example, he’d never gone back-to-school shopping until Jessi decided to take him on a little field trip so he could have the “full American experience,” according to a recent Instagram reel.
He’s baffled by the exhaustive, complicated list
In America, particularly in public schools, parents receive lists of supplies they’ll need for the coming school year. Some are for their child—folders, journals, binders—but many are for the classroom at large or for the teacher to use during instruction.
Jessi and Alessio set out to conquer their list at a local Target, and almost immediately it went off the rails.
“We need four glue sticks,” Jessi tells him. He looks at the shelf; they come in packs of three. “Why not three?” he asks. “Cause it says four on the list,” she says as her husband tries to decide whether to buy a six-pack or a three-pack and a single.
“OK, now you need three packs of dry erase markers,” she says as they walk down another aisle. “And you’re gonna give them to the teacher.”
“You kidding,” is all he can say, but his face really says it all: Three packs for the teacher?!
Later, they grab bundles of paper towels, tissues, and hand sanitizer. Alessio can’t believe it. “I go to school with this?!” he laments of the ridiculous haul.
The viral reel has parents in stitches
If “it’s funny because it’s true” were a video, it would be this one. Here’s what commenters had to say:
“Yes! And this year I found the school supply list (with specific brands and counts for each item) early, got everything for my son, and then two weeks later they sent out a different list with different specific brands for things so now we have sixteen glue sticks and two boxes of pencils he’s not even allowed to use!!! Make it make sense!”
“The amounts of some school supplies not matching up with the package amounts always reminds me of the ‘superfluous buns’ rant in Father of the Bride.”
“Yesterday I was first time buying school supplies I was confused why we have to buy board erasers, paper towels, sanitizing wipes, TWO pairs of scissors???!!! Thanks for clarifying this for me, my European mind can’t comprehend this!”
Much of Jessi and Alessio’s audience is from Europe and other parts of the world, which only serves to highlight how bizarre this ritual is.
Users from Norway, the U.K., and more couldn’t believe how extensive the school lists here in America are. In many countries, parents do buy their children notebooks, pencils, and basic supplies, but the communal effort to supply the teacher and classroom with things like cleaning and instructional materials is pretty unique to the U.S.
Still, as perplexing as it all may seem—and for how frustrating the lists can be as an American parent—no one understands better than public school teachers, who often have to take money from their own pocket for anything the lists don’t cover.
“Now try being the teacher and going broke every year trying to get the room ready and supplement the supplies you actually need to make it through the year!” one commenter wrote.
“First grade teacher here … I will admit that some of the quantities that schools put is a bit much but we definitely use these supplies! A lot of people don’t realize how much we spend on basic supplies for the classroom so it’s definitely much appreciated.”
The average educator in America spends over $500 per year of their own money on classroom supplies. It’s a longstanding problem in desperate need of a solution.
But in the meantime, why do schools ask for four glue sticks when most stores sell them in packs of three? We may never know the answer, but we do know the right thing to do: get the extras so your kid’s teacher doesn’t have to.
