Class fund non-participants: where do you think the party food comes from??

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I've seen it done where they charge $5 for 2 slices of pizza, if you don't pay, your kid doesn't get it. You then say if there is a hardship, email you and the kid will be given free pizza, with nobody knowing money wasn't given, BUT if they don't contact you the kid will NOT get pizza. That way you don't discriminate against those with financial issues. The money can cover some snacks at the party, teacher gifts, etc. For party decor, reuse what you have, have your kids make stuff-paper snowmen and snowflakes, hearts or whatever, but don't waste money. Have parents donate treats and beverages.

No! Exclude a kid because an email got lost?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP, that’s not what we said at all. Just do a signup genius! No need to demand cash from parents ever. We have great fun parties with just sign up genius and room mom doesn’t need to go broke.

And if parents do not sign up for SignUp Genius, you can send out an email saying that the party will get cancelled due to lack of participation. I think this is a better way to engage parents.

That doesn't work. And, our teacher tried that and my child came home really upset. We were happy to donate what ever was needed and did. Problem solved. You don't do that to kids. If no one signs up, room parent can do cupcakes or cookies and bottled water. Or, they can do more. We've done it a variety of ways. Usually you can get 4-5 parents to sign up for the absolute basics and the room parent fills in.

Pfft. Its ok for the snowflakes to be upset once in a while.

Why? You don't promise a party and then don't come through. If you don't want to do the work or pay for it, then why do you care what others do? The kids really enjoy the parties so I'm happy to do it.

Oh its perfectly fine that everyone came through with it. But do not blame the teacher for planning to cancel it if you had not.

And kids don’t need to be informed unless a party is funded. If it’s not funded, it’s not on the calendar.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP, that’s not what we said at all. Just do a signup genius! No need to demand cash from parents ever. We have great fun parties with just sign up genius and room mom doesn’t need to go broke.

And if parents do not sign up for SignUp Genius, you can send out an email saying that the party will get cancelled due to lack of participation. I think this is a better way to engage parents.

That doesn't work. And, our teacher tried that and my child came home really upset. We were happy to donate what ever was needed and did. Problem solved. You don't do that to kids. If no one signs up, room parent can do cupcakes or cookies and bottled water. Or, they can do more. We've done it a variety of ways. Usually you can get 4-5 parents to sign up for the absolute basics and the room parent fills in.

Pfft. Its ok for the snowflakes to be upset once in a while.

Why? You don't promise a party and then don't come through. If you don't want to do the work or pay for it, then why do you care what others do? The kids really enjoy the parties so I'm happy to do it.

Oh its perfectly fine that everyone came through with it. But do not blame the teacher for planning to cancel it if you had not.

And kids don’t need to be informed unless a party is funded. If it’s not funded, it’s not on the calendar.

Our teacher had planned the party regardless and would have bought it if no one else did. Its a school wide thing so how would you feel if one classroom got canceled. The parties happen every year so the kids know.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Maybe some families are struggling and don’t feel it’s prudent to contribute to such non-essential nonsense. You do you.

Our school dictates the parties. I don’t care if you donate but yes, we see your the biggest house in the neighborhood and drive the fanciest new car and then scream poverty over donating some napkins from dollar tree. Your kids will have fun and be treated the same either way.

Your school tells you that there needs to be a party, or that it needs to have pizza and fancy napkins?

And is it the school or the PTA?

School dictates it. Dollar tree is fancy? A few $5 pizzas is fancy.

27 $5 pizzas to be precise.

Most schools have free paper towels that work just fine to put a cupcake on. So yes. Judging a parent because they won’t make a special run to a special store is absurd. I am happy to have my kid eat off the school paper towels. I am happy to send you 30 napkins from the stack in my kitchen. If you are not happy to have those napkins in your pictures then please purchase them yourself.

I am a parent who contributes to the school. My kid’s teacher know that. I don’t need PTA mom to validate me.

If you don't want to give or have your child participate you can opt out. Most people grocery shop once a week. Is it really that hard or send in a few dollars? Our PTA has nothing to do with classroom parties. We don't always have basics at our school like paper towels or soap.

Holy hell, your priorities are off! Don’t solicits donations for extras, look to the basics!

Two different issues.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm the room parent at a public school. I end up paying for most of the food for kids' parties. We don't get pizza for parties, but it takes a lot of effort to put together a table of healthy food for these parties.

Before the holidays, I asked parents to vote to decide if they wanted to have a group class gift, then 1/2 backed out at the last minute, so I end up fronting 100s of dollars for that (instead of the 20 per family).

I have a serious illness and I lost my job this year (I have a temporary, lower paying one now). I still did the right thing.

I have no sympathy for the shirkers who don't even give a thought to the burden they're placing on a VOLUNTEER who is trying to make sure things are nice for all their kids and the teacher who takes care of them 8 hours a day.

Do better shirkers.

Group gift should have been whatever was donated, no making up money. Given the shutdown/build up? I understand totally.

No, this is why you don't do group gifts or you use the money you have. As the room parent collecting the money, you use what you have and choose a gift. If you choose to do more, then it should come out of your pocket. Our school follows the group gift limit so that would have been in violation of ethics.

I don't see how even if you provide nice food and pay for it all (I've done it where I've done sign up genius, collected money, gave up and just paid for it depending on the year) and even with nice food, its no more than $75 or so. What are you all buying?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:At our elementary in Bethesda we were asked to donate $20-25 per child at the beginning of the year. We ended up getting around $400. We sent a few emails to collect funds in the first month of school and offered paypal and venmo as payment options.

We spent $75 on the Halloween party and have budgeted $60 each for the Valentine's day and end of year parties. Plus spent $100 on the class holiday gift and will spend another $100 on teacher appreciation week.

The food at the halloween party was fruit, juice, water, popcorn/pretzels and mini cupcakes. We had games, decorations and prizes.

I'm detailing all of this to say that even at a school of upper middle class families, there is not a huge budget for these events and we're definitely not ordering pizza.

Its how you choose to spend the money. You could easily do pizza and a desert on $75. I don't get where the $75 went if you only had fruit, juice, water, popcorn/pretzels and mini cupcakes. You don't need juice. You can easily do pizza, desert, bottled water (or none if kids have water bottles), and fruit for $75.

Did you see the games, decorations and prizes?

Again, how much do you spend on games? A few prizes aren't that much and decorations - if you are a room parent year to year, you save it. Or, a few streamers, make a few signs (or dollar tree) and balloons - a bag of balloons is a dollar. This is the issue that people aren't spending the money wisely. I'd be pissed about that too.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Never heard of pizza at a class party. Only seen snacks, which parents volunteer to bring using SignUp Genius. You need to have said no to the teacher. If you are not able to communicate, then do not volunteer for the job.

Thanks for piling on.... I will take all the criticism here and do what I should have done: quit and let someone else take on this thankless job. But next time I hear "no one ever volunteers for anything" I will recall how I got sh*t on for doing it. And I don't feel bad about doing nothing from now on. Truly a thankless job. F you all very much, I am out.

This is definitely not the job for you!

You started this thread to point the finger at parents not giving you enough money.
When you were called out to take the blame yourself instead of blaming others, you start cursing and quit.
Not only is room Parent not the job for you, I can't imagine anything being the job for you. Including parenting.

Grow up already.

[Anonymous]

OP, it is not worth getting this hostile. I have done the job of room parent and don't care for it. I get how frustrating it is and I learned my lesson. You have to let go though. You made the mistake of not budgeting and not calmly telling the teacher we cannot afford pizza. It's not worth ruminating over people not paying. Life is too short. The thing is people will disappoint you in every area at some point-work, friends, family, kids and you can roll with it and focus on the positive or you can become bitter. Take the high road.

[Anonymous]

OP seemed like the party was more fun with less food (small cupcake or something) and more craft/ games. The kids get so much pizza at after school events that they don’t love pizza.

[Anonymous]

Why do you need more than a Halloween party, a Christmas/holiday party and a Valentine's card exchange? There's no need for more than three parties during the school year.

Why pizza? Crafts?

Maybe parents are tired of being asked to fund yet another class party. It's too much.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I've seen it done where they charge $5 for 2 slices of pizza, if you don't pay, your kid doesn't get it. You then say if there is a hardship, email you and the kid will be given free pizza, with nobody knowing money wasn't given, BUT if they don't contact you the kid will NOT get pizza. That way you don't discriminate against those with financial issues. The money can cover some snacks at the party, teacher gifts, etc. For party decor, reuse what you have, have your kids make stuff-paper snowmen and snowflakes, hearts or whatever, but don't waste money. Have parents donate treats and beverages.

No! Exclude a kid because an email got lost?

Seriously. This is why I HATE all the parties.

I wish people like OP and PP would just get a life and stop trying to find meaning by manufacturing drama. In a way I kind of hope that the above does happen because it would give other parents the opening to SHUT down this stupid party situation. So many of us would be GRATEFUL if you STOPPED the parties.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I've seen it done where they charge $5 for 2 slices of pizza, if you don't pay, your kid doesn't get it. You then say if there is a hardship, email you and the kid will be given free pizza, with nobody knowing money wasn't given, BUT if they don't contact you the kid will NOT get pizza. That way you don't discriminate against those with financial issues. The money can cover some snacks at the party, teacher gifts, etc. For party decor, reuse what you have, have your kids make stuff-paper snowmen and snowflakes, hearts or whatever, but don't waste money. Have parents donate treats and beverages.

No! Exclude a kid because an email got lost?

Seriously. This is why I HATE all the parties.

I wish people like OP and PP would just get a life and stop trying to find meaning by manufacturing drama. In a way I kind of hope that the above does happen because it would give other parents the opening to SHUT down this stupid party situation. So many of us would be GRATEFUL if you STOPPED the parties.

Really? I don't know many people who despise class parties. I think most of us just think it should be modest and inexpensive. The person who said cupcakes and water was on board. Go cheaper than bottled water. Bring some jugs and cups or if the kids have water bottles great. I think it's the over-the-top must have all the food and fun decor part that makes people roll their eyes. When i volunteer at class parties where there was a lot of food requested from parents I cringe when I see how much is dumped in the trash. The kids don't need a full lunch and a choice of 6 types of chips, full veggie platter, several types of fruit and 6 different desserts. 1 treat, t beverage and if you are super generous 1 healthy options or snacky food.

[Anonymous]

Going back to the original question, however: is only 55% of the class donates, yet they all consume, how is this fair? Pizza or cupcakes, whatever the budget... if your child is benefiting from the class funds and you don't contribute, is that fair? Put financial hardship aside. We all understand that. But I doubt half the class in OP's case is under that circumstance.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Going back to the original question, however: is only 55% of the class donates, yet they all consume, how is this fair? Pizza or cupcakes, whatever the budget... if your child is benefiting from the class funds and you don't contribute, is that fair? Put financial hardship aside. We all understand that. But I doubt half the class in OP's case is under that circumstance.

Especially if the class funds cover everything so there is no need to send in things during the year. As a working parent, I'd rather give once up front than have to remember cupcakes one day, fruit another.... the room parent is taking the work off my plate. Isnt' that worth it to you?

[Anonymous]

This room parent stuff is ridiculous. Seriously, kids will survive without school parties.