Class mom communicates with her law firm work email but forgets to inform teacher's birthday

[Anonymous]

3 kids and we have never celebrated a teacher’s birthday.

[Anonymous]

This title is odd. So basically, she is too professional and not enough of a class mom?

[Anonymous]

Our school celebrates teacher’s birthdays. The kids are encouraged to make handmade cards for the teacher. I’m not sure why everyone is hung up on that bit. I’m sure it varies by school.

[Anonymous]

I was a room mom a couple of times, and was never told the teachers’ birthdates or asked to do anything for them. Teacher birthdays were always handled by fellow teachers.

[Anonymous]

How are these two things related?

[Anonymous]

I have never heard of celebrating the teachers birthday either...but if it is the norm in your school perhaps this particular teacher asked to keep hers private.

I do notice that many room parents advertise for their real estate compnay, side business etc. but as long as they are committed to the class it is ok.

[Anonymous]

Would you be upset if her email signature made her a paralegal instead? What about if she herself was just a teacher?

As for the birthday, I don't recall us ever hearing about a teachers birthday.

I say good for her for being a volunteer while also having a full time job! I appreciate anyone who takes the time to volunteer.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What makes her seem like a not-nice person? It sounds like you're intimidated that she's a partner at a law firm. I grew up going to school, my mother was a teacher, my grandfather was a teacher and I worked in schools for a few years. Students never celebrated teachers birthdays. So tell me again, what is your problem?

Don't know how you can extrapolate intimidation from this, but the biggest problem I see is that most companies actually forbid work email for personal use especially in a law firm that could have legal ramifications. I see no reason for her not to communicate with her personal email.

Law firms don’t care about this.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Would you be upset if her email signature made her a paralegal instead? What about if she herself was just a teacher?

As for the birthday, I don't recall us ever hearing about a teachers birthday.

I say good for her for being a volunteer while also having a full time job! I appreciate anyone who takes the time to volunteer.

(For the record, "just a teacher" = sarcasm

[Anonymous]

If you care so deeply, why didn’t you step up to be the class parent?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:To be fair, law firm signatures and titles are often automatic, so I doubt she is purposefully adding. My firm has blocked Gmail on our laptops, so if class mom needs to send emails that aren’t doable from a phone, that’s probably why she’s using her work email. And if she’s a partner, she’s busy. Why isn’t her husband stepping up?

Why should her husband step up if she chose to be class mom? What a weird post.

Something her child needs that she can’t do? Of course! But class parent is a hobby. If she chose to do it, then presumably she is old enough and capable enough to figure out how.

[Anonymous]

How is it “highly visible”? Do some people have secret or hidden messages in their email signatures?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Our school celebrates teacher’s birthdays. The kids are encouraged to make handmade cards for the teacher. I’m not sure why everyone is hung up on that bit. I’m sure it varies by school.

our room parent buys a b day gift for the teacher, brings flowers, and her favorite Starbucks. They also buy her lunch and a piece of her favorite ‘lemon’ cake or whatever. It’s very bizarre to me, but it’s been done K-6. They collect money from the parents for all of this and ask you to do extra stuff, too. Things have really changed since we grew up. I agree that teacher b days were not a ‘thing’ when we grew up.

[Anonymous]

The email signature is irrelevant, I wouldn’t care about that at all. None of my business and also I don’t care.

We learn about teacher birthdays and kids are encouraged to make cards or bring a treat, but it’s not required. Definitely not something “organized” by a room parent. Kids can bring something or not.

I guess OP was expecting the room mom to organize a party or cupcakes or something? I personally don’t think that’s necessary and could potentially cause more problems (not all teachers would want that, collecting money donations from class families can be fraught and you don’t want to do it too many times, classes often organize gifts for teacher appreciation week and EOY, so adding a birthday seems excessive— what about teachers with summer birthdays?).

Agree with others that if you don’t like how class parent is being handled, you should just volunteer yourself. Otherwise, let it go, it’s really not that important.

[Anonymous]

Never has a room parent informed us of a teacher birthday, so if that’s something your school does it is very possible that the room mom was unaware of the school specific tradition.

Having an email signature and using a work email is something I’ve seen a lot of parents do and while it isn’t the choice I’d make I’m not sure why it is a problem for the OP.