Room mother power

[Anonymous]

Keep in mind you need to do what's best for the children, the classroom. Not waste time and effort on playing games with grown women.

[Anonymous]

This is the most bizarre thread I've ever read. When I was room parent, I'd set up a sign up genius for volunteer events, and if all the slots were filled, then I'd tell people to come anyway because more often than not, we could always use extra hands, because someone would inevitably drop out or have to cancel.

There was absolutely no ring kissing. Being room parent at our school doesn't come with a ring in any respect.

[Anonymous]

Sounds fake... never got any help.

[Anonymous]

I was a room parent last year (public school) and did not experience anything like this in the slightest. (And this was at a school with a highly involved and active parent community.) The ONLY - truly the only -- messages I received from other parents the whole year were to ask if they had already contributed or not to the class gift fund because they couldn't remember if they'd sent the $$. I received several messages like that.

I sent out the party and other volunteer opportunity signups and it was simply FCFS with no repeats.

This was for 4th grade -- maybe in younger grades parents are more eager, though, to get in the classroom. ???

[Anonymous]

Troll. If not troll, then wow, get help.

[Anonymous]

Nope. When I was PA president, I swear people avoided me on purpose out of fear I'd ask them to help with something.

[Anonymous]

NP here. I like that the teacher picked someone at random.

[Anonymous]

I was one of 3 room parents for 4th grade at a private school. The other 2 did almost nothing after our initial meeting, but they let me know they’d been room parents since kindergarten. I sent all the emails (having to sign our 3 names) and organized the 3 parties. Never again.

[Anonymous]

It's pretty obvious the OP is so insecure and socially inept that she's mistaking friendly requests for ring-kissing.

Does not bode well for her parenting. Let's hope the husband is more aware

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:This has got to depend on the grade. I was room parent in 4th and parents were already checked out at that point. None of us wanted to be room parent in 5th again. I can see how people would be very enthusiastic in K or 1st.

This is how it was at our old public (at least). Through 2nd the competition to volunteer at parties definitely existed. After that? Nothing. It was like pulling teeth to get adequate volunteers. By 6th the teachers just asked us to donate supplies and did the rest themselves because getting volunteers was too much work and people wanted to be the Venmo mom at most.

At our new private it seems to be pretty similar. People will volunteer in the lower grades, but forget it for the older kids.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I was one of 3 room parents for 4th grade at a private school. The other 2 did almost nothing after our initial meeting, but they let me know they’d been room parents since kindergarten. I sent all the emails (having to sign our 3 names) and organized the 3 parties. Never again.

Ha, I had a room parent experience like this once. Fun! Towards the end of the year I stopped signing all 3 names. It was obvious (since my name was on the from line always) that I was doing all the work anyway.

[Anonymous]

Your post made me LOL OP. I do know what you are talking about. With great power comes great responsibility. Proceed with great care. 😂

[Anonymous]

It's a great name for a band.

[Anonymous]

Weird. I never talk to the room parent besides polite conversation if I must. I ignore her emails because they are all for stupid things. I actually wish it wasn’t “a thing” and that there would be fewer dumb parties, less junk food and junk crafts and more class time. And then there’s the multitude of emails about teacher gifts, teacher lounge snacks, teacher appreciation, end of the year gift and on and on…. Ignore. Teachers are professionals doing a job and kids are in class to learn. If parents want to be involved in school and volunteer, they should take up some special ed training or specialized reading training and provide volunteer educational support and tutoring to those kids that are far behind. Not waste time spinning wheels to feel busy throwing dumb parties and collecting money for teacher gifts and snacks

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This has got to depend on the grade. I was room parent in 4th and parents were already checked out at that point. None of us wanted to be room parent in 5th again. I can see how people would be very enthusiastic in K or 1st.

This is how it was at our old public (at least). Through 2nd the competition to volunteer at parties definitely existed. After that? Nothing. It was like pulling teeth to get adequate volunteers. By 6th the teachers just asked us to donate supplies and did the rest themselves because getting volunteers was too much work and people wanted to be the Venmo mom at most.

At our new private it seems to be pretty similar. People will volunteer in the lower grades, but forget it for the older kids.

A lot of people don't like kids except their own. Little kids are cute and funny and maybe more tolerable. 3rd grade and up, you have to be a "kid person" to want to volunteer.