RANT - I Hate the PTA

[Anonymous]

PTA board member again - just wanted to add that most of our board and volunteers are people who work full-time or part-time! Very few SAHMs.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:1) grab a flower from your garden
2) ignore this-- everyone brings in food. Or send in some grapes or cookies.
3) Have your kid make a card.
4) Get 2 amazon gift cards -- one for the teacher...
5) and one for the specialist.

You do realize that many people don’t have gardens right?

[Anonymous]

I hate teacher appreciation week. I am happy to write a check, buy supplies, and give teachers gifts; I am also happy to pay more so that they can have more days off or other perks. I don't support a week of massages and catered fast food meals (which is what our school does) and am not available to help that week.

[Anonymous]

It usually happens at well-off schools. At our Title 1, we pay for a catered breakfast and people give gifts on their own if they want to. that's it!

[Anonymous]

I think the whole concept of TAW is stupid. I'm fine with giving a winter gift and/or end-of-year gift, but an entire week on top of those? Nope.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I think the whole concept of TAW is stupid. I'm fine with giving a winter gift and/or end-of-year gift, but an entire week on top of those? Nope.

I'm a teacher and I agree with this as well.

[Anonymous]

Just pick one thing and do that. Done.

[Anonymous]

We got bamboozled into this at preschool last year. Parent sends an email out saying who wants to contribuete to getting a gift for the 3 teachers in the class. Sounds good, and I assume it'll be $20-ish.

Instead, it ends up being $70 despite most parents contributing. The teachers got somethign every day of the week, including gift cards in the $100-200 range each. I think in total the gifts came to over $1k that week.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It usually happens at well-off schools. At our Title 1, we pay for a catered breakfast and people give gifts on their own if they want to. that's it!

I’m at a well-off school and the PTA is taking care of all the activities (breakfast, lunch etc) except for one day i assume by using PTA funds . One day is up to the room parent and typically she asks parents to send in cards while the room parent picks up a gift card using class funds. So OP’s hate is misplaced. There are plenty of PTAs that don’t require volunteer support from every parent. Ours is really great.

[Anonymous]

Why can’t you drop off the food for the 7 AM breakfast the night before? Having everyone drop off at 7 AM sounds chaotic. DS’s ES had us drop off the afternoon / Evening before.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It usually happens at well-off schools. At our Title 1, we pay for a catered breakfast and people give gifts on their own if they want to. that's it!

I’m at a well-off school and the PTA is taking care of all the activities (breakfast, lunch etc) except for one day i assume by using PTA funds . One day is up to the room parent and typically she asks parents to send in cards while the room parent picks up a gift card using class funds. So OP’s hate is misplaced. There are plenty of PTAs that don’t require volunteer support from every parent. Ours is really great.

Our PTA is putting the food on the room parents and asking us to buy it. They don't want to send it to all the PTA members. Same with volunteering for a host of other things. I've spent a fortunate already as a room parent. I'm so waiting for this year to be over and let someone else do it next year.

[Anonymous]

I am a PTA board member and a SAHM. Our staff appreciation chairperson is a very busy WOHM who is fabulous. She is exceptionally organized and is doing a whole week of meals and treats for the teachers with the help of other parents. She has three kids spread across three schools (ES, MS and HS). Trust me, if she can go overboard with the decoration and celebration she will, because this is truly her thing and she has an incredible flair for it. This is not a WOHM or SAHM thing. Many people have an natural flair for putting together amazing celebration. You obviously do not realize that by doing just the smallest amount of work, you can make the workload easy for everyone.

OP, IRL, I have never heard anyone say anything about another woman being a SAHM or WOHM ever. Seems very low class and uncouth. It does seem that you do not have your shit together and you are a whiner. Accept that you are a taker and quit posting here.

Some of the busiest parents will send money donations for events and ask other parents to buy things for the celebrations. There are many ways to contribute.. Bitching about it is not helping anyone.

[Anonymous]

PTA hates you too, OP!

[Anonymous]

Op I hear you and would find a week of homework super annoying too.

Other options you should iggest PTA consider for next year:

- each grade hosts a meal during the year so it shifts the appreciation out instead of concentrating all one month. Then during TAW it is just a “do your own thing” week for cards and stuff to teacher.

- pta purchases lunch and handles the appreciation pieces for each staff person - again aside from personalized notes or small gifts that are then up to each parent to do/not do.

[Anonymous]

We never did this stuff when we were kids. Why now? Let’s simplify all this extraneous stuff at school and focus on learning. We can show appreciation individually on our own terms.