Reply to Did Covid disrupt the parent volunteer pipeline

Forum Index » Schools and Education General Discussion

Reply to "Did Covid disrupt the parent volunteer pipeline "

Subject:

Emoticons





More smilies

Text Color: Font: Close Marks

[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]90% of the child-related volunteer mental/emotional/physical labor is done by moms and the newer generation of moms are not into doing free labor that is being taken for granted and baked in to the school budgets. They no longer need or want that validation. [/quote]

This is utterly false.  100% of the volunteer coaches for boys sports in my town are men.  The vast majority of coaches in girl sports are men.  At games and youth tournaments it is relatively rare to see a female coach.  Nearly all of the referees in all the sports I am aware of are male.  I have never seen a female youth football coach.   All of the dads I know are more involved with their kids athletic activities than the moms are.

I think the statement you are making says more about your husband and your marriage than it does about our area. [/quote]

to the previous poster, You actually proved her point. [/quote]

Plus, athletics involves much more unseen labor than just coaching. [/quote]

+1 to that.

Though I think the idea that doing free labor is somehow less than paid labor is terrible. Yes, both genders should be willing to do it, [b]but there's value in the gift economy and not just for stuff and not just for the receiver.[/b]

Maybe Covid accelerated the volunteering crisis, but the idea that people shouldn't ever do any labor for free started it.[/quote]

There is when it’s a gift. Not when it’s an obligation, and not when those “gifts” are taken for granted by schools to reduce their own responsibilities.  What COVID revealed was that schools didn’t feel any reciprocal responsibility.
[/quote]

That wouldn't explain why extracurriculars and non-school activities are feeling the pinch of lack of volunteers.[/quote]

I think the organizations which took women’s labor for granted are the ones feeling the pinch. Our swim team has a ton of volunteers— they recognize and reward those volunteers.[/quote]

Our swim team berates people over the head into volunteering and then takes all volunteers except the "cool" ones for granted. It's why I'm making my kids quit, even though swim is good for them. It's such a miserable experience unless you are on the in crowd.[/quote]

That is a really disappointing statement from a parent.  You are going to withdraw your children from an activity because it’s too much trouble for you?  Save some money for their therapy. [/quote]

It’s interesting I was having the exact opposite reaction— this is a parent who is modeling healthy boundaries for her kids early, and they’ll have better mental health outcomes than their peers.[/quote]

This. People are acting like boundaries are selfish. It's actually selfish to martyr yourself to make yourself feel better for volunteering and having your kids in all the things and then end up exhausted, complaining, resentful, and with no energy left for your family.

And, yes, having energy left for your family may necessitate making hard choices and doing things others may look down upon, but I agree with PP, modeling proactive choices is so much better than just reflexively doing what everyone thinks you "should" do. You can't do everything, or at least not well.[/quote]

Options

	Disable HTML in this message
	Disable BB Code in this message
	Disable smilies in this message

Review message

Search Recent Topics Hottest Topics