Sir, - For convenience's sake may I take it that the parent who complained about First Communion expense (E&L, May 13th) is a mother? (Why doesn't someone invent a usable neutral pronoun?)
She anticipates "a hefty bill" for her son's big day, but being in easy circumstances is philosophical enough about the cost of "his clothes and our clothes, a meal out and all the other extras". She reserves her ire - and her sarcasm - for the school and the professional photographer engaged for the day. After all, most families, including her own, own a camera.
But surely most families, including hers, also have a home and maybe a garden, food and a decent stitch already in the wardrobe to see them through the ceremony. (Let's by all means dress up the "boy of the day"!) She is bothered about the profits of the photographer - and worries that the school too might get a cut! But surely the clothes shop and the hotel and all the others make a profit. Maybe the saleslady and the waiter get a cut! What has she against photographers? Might I remind her that the "professional shot of her child looking so saintly in his finery" will still be around on his ordination/wedding/graduation day when the "other extras" will be long since gone.
No, I'm not a photographer, nor am I connected to one. I was until recently principal of a primary school and often had to deal with this curious lack of logic.
Blennerville,
Tralee,
Co. Kerry.