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

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It’s not normal to celebrate the teacher’s birthday

Plus 1

+1 I’ve never once seen this done.

I see this in all my kids private schools. I wonder if this is a public vs private school thing.

No, it’s not. Each school has its own culture, whether public or private. Our public elementary has very engaged parents. There’s a parent liaison who coordinates with all room parents. Each room parent receives communications they’re supposed to pass on to all class parents about grade-specific things. They also distribute a form to room parents for the teacher to fill out at the beginning of the year. It asks when their birthday is, and then asks all their favorites: restaurant, candy, dessert, lunch, stores where they shop, hobbies, things they collect, etc. Room parents then collect money from parents and use the form to celebrate the teacher’s birthday, holidays, teacher appreciation, end of year.

Being engaged in the kids' education and classroom activities has nothing to do with celebrating teachers' birthdays.

[Anonymous]

Law firms typically don't prevent their employees -- much less their partners -- from using their work email for personal business. It certainly isn't ILLEGAL. What an absolutely bizarre claim. Even the federal government doesn't prevent employees for using work email for certain discrete personal tasks, though there are obviously more restrictions.

My husband gets school email to his work address because gmail is blocked on the hospital computer and he doesn't want to miss emails during the work day constantly. Why assume that she's "flexing"? Not to mention that half of DC is a lawyer and many folks are partners... It's not really the flex you apparently think it is.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It’s not normal to celebrate the teacher’s birthday

Yes, it is.

No. After 10 schools, 19 years with kids in school and being a room mom 4 times myself, never ever was the teacher's birthday celebrated. Not the norm.

[Anonymous]

OP ghosting.

[Anonymous]

This must be completely by school. We didn't do it growing up, and my older two kids have never been asked by a room parent to do anything for teachers. One year a teacher brought popcorn to celebrate his own birthday and my daughter was thrilled. My son just started PK at a different DC school and the room parent let us know it was the teachers birthday and asked us to send in cards. So we did!

[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.

How is this your business?

If she's working a lot of hours, it might be easier for her to only check the work email. She probably sees it faster if its in the work email.

I see zero problem with what she's doing. You, on the other hand, seem like a mean girl.

[Anonymous]

Is it common to use work email for personal business?

[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.

I can see plenty of reason for her to use personal email. I did the same thing, communicate with the school/class via work email. When I was the room mom, I was a VP at a very large defense contractor--they can be notoriously fussy about some things, but using your work email for stuff like this is not something they care about. In fact, it's preferable to using non secure email on their work computers.

I think you just sound insecure, OP. Nobody is flexing with their work email, they do what they do. People tend to know anyway if they have a conversation with someone.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Is it common to use work email for personal business?

Depending on what it is, sure.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Is it common to use work email for personal business?

Depending on what it is, sure.

+1. My law firm blocks gmail, so I use work email for absolutely everything. Nothing weird about her email address or signature, but does sound like she dropped the ball IF the school celebrates teacher bdays. One of my kids' schools makes a big deal about them, the other doesn't mention them.

[Anonymous]

Did you volunteer to be class parent?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Is it common to use work email for personal business?

Depending on what it is, sure.

+1. My law firm blocks gmail, so I use work email for absolutely everything. Nothing weird about her email address or signature, but does sound like she dropped the ball IF the school celebrates teacher bdays. One of my kids' schools makes a big deal about them, the other doesn't mention them.

You can use gmail on a phone. I don't understand why people use work for personal communication, I've known so many people who are let go and immediately locked out of e-mail accounts. Our firm does it while the person is in the meeting.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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?

Lol why blame the husband. He didn’t volunteer to be class mom - she did. Does your husband do your work?

PP here, my gripe is mostly that OP blamed class mom for not volunteering, but said nothing of her spouse. I assume if one of them volunteered for things, OP would feel the family is contributing in-person in a fair way compared to the rest of the class parents. And frankly, yes, for school things, my husband and I share the load, and he in fact does more than I do because I’m often busy and have less flexibility, as I imagine is the case for class mom. Is there even a class dad position available? If not, should examine that inequity more closely.

Except here’s the thing: you have absolutely NO idea what the husband is doing and whether he’s pulling his weight. All you know is that he’s a man, and he’s not the room parent. And you’re extrapolating from there. It’s no different from me assuming that, say, because you’re a working mother you’re less invested in your kids’ upbringing than a SAHM.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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?

Lol why blame the husband. He didn’t volunteer to be class mom - she did. Does your husband do your work?

Sure, my husband helps me. I volunteer for my school auction, but DH is better at tech stuff than I am, so he helps me with the website from time to time. I volunteered, but he helps.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It’s not normal to celebrate the teacher’s birthday

Yes, it is.

No, it's not.

Neither I, my spouse, nor my kids have ever celebrated a teacher's birthday. It's not the norm.

In your world of 3-4 people you've decided what's the norm?