Wohm moms- how involved are you at your kid's elementary school and related activities?

[Anonymous]

I try to do one field trip a year but don't believe in all the class parties or most of the PTA BS, so that makes my decision easy.

[Anonymous]

Every birthday party and every evening event. Halloween parade and one other school day event plus one field trip. With out of school activities I am far more involved because the hours don't conflict with work.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I try to do one field trip a year but don't believe in all the class parties or most of the PTA BS, so that makes my decision easy.

+1. Most of these time sucks are just make-work tasks created by/for sahms to justify why they are too busy to go back to work.

[Anonymous]

I am a WOHM mom and I was deeply involved in PTA, holding many board positions (secretary, VP, fundraisign chair) over a 8-year-period. Most of the work was done in the evening hours or before school. I did not do field trips or volunteer in the classroom because taking time off from work is difficult.

[Anonymous]

I go on any field trip that I can, we contribute to the PTA but do not usually attend meetings, I volunteer in the classroom in the morning for 2 hours when the teacher or another parent is doing something and asks for help, but that is only a couple of times a year. I have an inflexible schedule that starts late in the mornings and I have to take time off to attend evening meetings like group parent-teacher conferences.

[Anonymous]

I am a teacher and I can't take off time to volunteer at all of the events. I average one concert/play/party for each of my two children a year and take personal time. We send in items for all the other events. We go to everything in the evening. As for birthdays, we go to all as long as there isn't a conflict. DH has been a coach and I have been a team mom for sports.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:How many things do you do at your child's elementary school and related activities? This includes PTA involvement, chaperoning field trips, attending class parties, gatherings in the evening for school for fundraisers, concerts, and school events, and taking your kid to classmate's birthday parties on the weekend

I WOHM, and have done all of these things listed.

[Anonymous]

I do what I can. One of us goes to all the class events. No PTA because I would have to pay child care. I volunteer to chaperone trips if I don't have something major at work. My job gives me 16 hours of volunteer leave a year so that is nice.

[Anonymous]

I woh and I did lots of volunteering K-3. I strongly disagree with mom's in the classroom. I saw so much pettiness from the moms that volunteer all the time. They are terrible and should not be around other people's children.

I moved my children toa private school with no volunteering. It was awesome. II continued to volunteer just now at school.

My H also volunteered. Why not ask the dad's how much they do.

BTW there are many parents that volunteer behind the scenes, like the accountant that does the books for the sports committee.

So much bean counting is done by the PTA who does so little fopr the kids in the grand scheme of things.

[Anonymous]

I WOH and I chaperone field trips, volunteer for most evening events/activities, volunteer for some daytime activities (field day, book fair, etc.). I don't do any PTA jobs and I don't do a regular volunteer gig (e.g., work in the library every Tuesday afternoon). I am a fed and my agency is pretty flexible and I have a lot of leave. But it is easier for me to take specific days/hours off for a particular event than it is to commit to a recurring time.

[Anonymous]

I volunteered in the classroom in K, but not after that. DD's 1st and 2nd grade teachers did not have parent volunteers. They found them too distracting and not a net positive. I get it!

Personally, I strongly dislike classroom parties. They're chaotic and my DD does not care if I'm there or not. And there was only one field trip so far.

Our school has an "open lunch" policy -- parents can come eat in the cafeteria with the kids any time. I tend to do it 2-3 times a year. DD loves it, and it's so much fun to listen as the kids chatter and interact. Much more "real" to me than an hour of doing centers etc. in the classroom.

[Anonymous]

I usually chaperone one field trip per year (or DH does), attend any concert/program my kids participate in, participate in the two fundraising evening activities each year, take my kids to any birthday parties they want to go to (or DH does). We don't have class parties so that's not an issue. This year I've taken a role in the PTA that will involve 2 evening meetings a month but hopefully not much more than that.

[Anonymous]

Husband and I volunteer, but mostly for the stuff we can do behind the scenes/not during working hours, like working on the school website and answering questions from prospective families. We also try to alternate chaperoning several field trips a year. We try to attend maybe half of the PTA meetings, but we're lucky in that the school offers childcare during these. We rarely take time off work to attend classroom events, although we do attend a few (VDay, Mother's Day, Father's Day, end of year celebration/performance).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:How many things do you do at your child's elementary school and related activities? This includes PTA involvement, chaperoning field trips, attending class parties, gatherings in the evening for school for fundraisers, concerts, and school events, and taking your kid to classmate's birthday parties on the weekend

All of the above. For complete disclosure, I work from home 90+ % of the time, and my role and manager are really flexible with this sort of thing. My kids were at two different schools last year so I didn't make everything, but I made most events.

[Anonymous]

So far I took DD to her first day of kindergarten.