Ugh. You're giving the anti-PTO moms great material. Because this is what PTO moms do. Fix it. (and yes, I heard that the letter already went out. oh my)

If nobody else wants the job, then it's fine. Someone has to do it. But another mom signed up and you took it anyway? Nope, you suck. You need to email her and thank her for stepping up and let her do it.

I'm a PTA chair and actively sought others to be room parent in my kids' classes. Could I have done both roles? Yes. But I think it's more important to have as many different people involved as possible and my co-chair and I pointedly recruited room parents who are not able to make the PTO meetings due to work schedules, but who show up at all the events. We also made sure to ask parents who had not yet been room parents.

This can't be real.

Anonymous wrote:I've already accepted. A mother who signed up before me seemed upset but the letter already went out.

Who chose you? Why were you chosen if she signed up first?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I've already accepted. A mother who signed up before me seemed upset but the letter already went out.

Who,cares about the letter. Just make the change and announce it in the next letter.

This. No one will care. The letter can be made to sound like there wasn't a mistake. Most schools I know have at least two room parents anyway.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm the OP. Only one mom was on the list to volunteer but I don't know her so I volunteered to be room parent. I feel a little guilty now.

This why people don't get involved and call the PTA a microcosm of makework mean girls. . You didn't know her, so you simply didn't allow her the chance to help?

+100!!!!!

Anonymous wrote:Why would you want to do both?

+1

Please answer this... I am genuinely curious!

Anonymous wrote:I've already accepted. A mother who signed up before me seemed upset but the letter already went out.

Who,cares about the letter. Just make the change and announce it in the next letter.

Anonymous wrote:I'm the OP. Only one mom was on the list to volunteer but I don't know her so I volunteered to be room parent. I feel a little guilty now.

Really? -- So, you volunteered though there was another mother on the list... you sound like a control freak. I wouldn't vote for you for janitor!

Upset? Why would you want to? Don't you have enough to do?

OP, I have plenty of time to help and volunteer and sadly gave up. I volunteered on several PTA lists. Have heard nothing. Was the first person on the room parent sign up list and nothing. Its fine if you were chosen, but don't expect me to send in donations and do stuff to help you if you are going to take it all over and between the school and PTA, exclude some of us parents. I don't want to hear from you about the class gift. I don't want to hear from you about teacher appreciation. I don't want to hear, oh, I can't do this, can someone else do it. You took it all on so you deal with it all. Good luck.

P.S. As a new parent I went to the PTA meeting. Never again. The people running it were rude, unwelcoming and not pleasant. They went out of their way to make me feel unwanted.

Wait, do we know if the other mom actually wanted to be room parent or just signed up to volunteer? I do think the other mom should be asked if she wants to be room parent, but she might very well say no.

Fix it OP.

Anonymous wrote:I'm the OP. Only one mom was on the list to volunteer but I don't know her so I volunteered to be room parent. I feel a little guilty now.

Seriously? You didn't know her, so you didn't give her the opportunity to get involved? Yeah, that's not cool and absolutely why people get frustrated with the PTO moms. In a few months when you don't have people showing up at your meetings you'll know why. You took an opportunity to get other parents involved and instead chose to be exclusionary and insular just because you didn't know someone. Mean girl behavior all grown up.

If you truly feel guilty and realize your mistake, it's not too late in the year to fix it - reach out to the mom, apologize, and ask if she's still willing to do the job. Then back away, let her do it without your interference