PTA--Like I don't feel guilty enough all on my own. - Page 4

[oregongirlie]

I don't know what to say. What a mean, mean, mean, passive agressive icky person. YUCK. I'm sorry you had this experience. It's something for everyone to take and put in their empathy file, for sure!

[Ellien C]

With her attitude, no wonder the PTA is under attended. I wouldn't want to hang around with people like her. Self-righteous _____!

"We need to see a lot more of you."? - That's how she drums up support? That's terrible. "There's cabs?" Who the heck is she to tell you what or how to manage your life? I could see if she arranged a ride with someone from your area - that would be useful. She probably knows a lot of people through her position.

Just don't engage her anymore. You owe NO ONE an explanation for your activities as related to the school or your life.

For the record, my employed mother never went to any PTA functions and she was a great mother! She even worked in a school and she would never join the PTA. I think she found it cliqu-ey and unrealistic and she never harbored any guilt about not joining the PTA. My mother taught me about priorities and what was really important (me) throught her actions.

[Elyra]

Wow. That was a pretty terrible approach to drum up support. I know how magnet schools can be my oldest son attended one and they really made it seem like participation in the PTA was mandatory. They stressed it to the point you felt very very pressured to volunteer just to say you did it and they would leave you alone for the rest of the year. I was pressured to the point I showed up to a man a cake sale booth with a brand new baby, only a about 2 weeks old when I should have been at home trying to get some sleep. I was called several times and sent reminders that I *needed* to be there early for my shift of a mere hour of my life. They made it seem like it's only an hour, don't you have an hour for your child? Well in that hour I was not needed at all there were too many people there. Everyone was shocked I showed up especially with a brand new baby. All I could say was I thought it was required, then the woman who had called made it seem like *I* insisted on being there. I was really put off and did not attend or volunteer again.

I know being someone who coordinates these things is beyond stressful and hard to do. My mother was the PTA president for several years when I was in school and I remember how hard she worked and how much she did since volunteers were scarce. But really this approach this Perfect PTA Mom had was not the way to get help. :

[Verity]

Shonahsmom, I am so sorry you had to deal with that s&%@( person. She's the kind who make people run screaming from PTO/PTA.

Although there are a lot of SAHPs at our school, I detest how everything is run on the schedule of SAHPs whose children are all at least preschool age and seems to go overboard in making things difficult for parents who work outside the home or have young children at home and no daytime child care. (Our school has a strict no-siblings policy for volunteering and PTO meetings.) It's as if the SAHPs need the power trip of being in charge of PTO.

Someone at our school recently brought up the idea of having evening PTO meetings, and it was immediately shot down. They haven't heard the last of it.