Feeling like a human ATM... oh, $5.50 for Pre-K T Shirts, sure. Oh, plant sale? Sure. Oh, couple bucks for poster board? There you go.

A friend’s Facebook status update about open wallet season resonated loudly with other parents online one morning this week, including me.

One urban dad quickly piped in: $507 a month for D's Pre-K. Plus, I have to work a Bingo a month, or we get fined $75. PLUS, both Trish and I have to work the school's annual carnival in June -- 8 hours, each, or we get fined $375. Each. And, yeah, not to mention the stuff he comes home with -- T-shirts, pre-K yearbook, school pics, etc, etc. There's a racket in there somewhere!

Prompting another mom to weigh in: The big stuff you can at least plan for. It's the note in the backpack midweek that always gets me. And 'exact change' please.

Switching over to Twitter, the conversation was also fast and furious: I swear whatever discount I got on tuition at my kids’ school I have paid in full with all the request for money, donations and snacks.

Here’s my tally for the week: $10 “suggested donation” for the year-end school concert; $20 for bus fare to the year-end school outing at the lake; $20 for the ticket to soccer team tail-gating and a chance to play on Giants Stadium. Red Bulls T-shirt an optional $5. $25 for year-end soccer tourney fees. And then there’s the ice cream.

The kid who sells the most quarts of Rita’s Ice Cream as part of a school fundraiser wins an iPhone. Looks like my kid won’t be getting it! I’m not buying ice cream by the gallon these days, and she’s not hustling the neighborhood for sales.

What my 12-year-old is getting this summer is a job. She’s got three mother’s helper gigs lined up already between her organized summer programming. Demand is high for kids who have the kind of knack she does with children. Our new next-door neighbors promise to be a fourth client because they have a toddler.

Increasing numbers of parents I know who work full-time paid jobs are lobbying their employers for more work-from-home privileges this summer so they can reduce the budgetary bite for childcare during summer break.

My daughter’s the secondary beneficiary of this because at $4/hour, she offers a reliable and economical way for a parent to focus on business without having to stop to distract and entertain their child every 15 minutes.

Plus, she doesn’t need a full-time job. So the flexibility in her schedule works well for parents who can’t afford to pay someone for a full 8-hour day.

By the time August rolls around, my daughter will have added to the long-term fund she’s designated for her “first apartment” as well as a nice short-term stash for her camp canteen money!

Do you feel like a Human ATM this time of year? Weigh in on The Exchange.