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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]Somebody needs to babysit the attention needs of Alpha Mom.  If the PTA does not do it, then school staff members are stuck with that extra job.  PTA is for handling Alpha Mom, not for helping the kids.[/quote]

This is funny because it is sadly true. The problem though is that when you don't understand this coming in as a new parent (who is not Alpha Mom) and one of the first things that happens is that these Alpha Moms start emailing you and talking to you and encouraging you to volunteer. And because they are Alpha Mom, they are aggressive about it and will engage in like military-grade influence tactics to try and push you to volunteer and give money. I didn't get this initially at first and this made me very susceptible to it because I was just a parent of an ECE kid who wanted to do the right thing but didn't necessarily know what I was supposed to do. And the school doesn't say "this is what we look for from parents" or at least ours did.

But the PTA comes at you with 400 emails telling you that they need money and volunteers for XYZ and at least at my school, you get the hard sell. They use all the manipulation tactics of like your worst boss or a nightmare family member -- guilt-tripping, bribery, exclusion, flattery, whatever works. It's actually psychotic but they truly believe they are doing it for "the greater good" so they have no self awareness that when some parent of a Kindergartener gets the 38th email in two weeks explaining that they really need volunteers for Fall Festival and, you know, this event is incredibly important to the school and the kids and teachers really appreciate it (note: it will turn out the kids are somewhat indifferent and the teachers sometimes dislike this stuff but you won't realize that at first, you will take these assertions at face value) and if you don't volunteer then probably they'll have to cancel it and think how badly it would reflect on the current cohort of parents if they were the ones who got the Fall Festival cancelled because they selfishly refused to leave work early to volunteer to run the merchandise table from 4pm-5pm. Humiliating, so you better pony up.

I just want to pull aside every new elementary parent and tell them what I wish I'd heard, which is that this stuff is garbage. Take care of your kid, be polite and supportive to the teachers, make sure your child has what they need for school daily and does their homework where appropriate and is fed and rested and ready to learn. Fall Festival isn't important and please ignore the pleading rants of Alpha Mom who is channeling all the energy of a billionaire CEO in the middle of a hostile takeover bid into a four hour pumpkin sale with a cider station. You owe them nothing.[/quote]

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