I am PTO president. I work an 80% schedule and am at home 2 days and in the office (45 min commute) 2 days. Its definitely a lot of work but very important to me.

I volunteer a couple of times a year in the classroom (parties, field trips, or otherwise) and help with PTA events but I've avoided long-term commitments. I do feel guilty about that. We dropped girl scouts, partly because of intense pressure to take on a bigger role for the troop.

I have friends who work full-time and sit on the board of the PTA, volunteer coach, run scout troops, etc. and I am super impressed by their ability to take on so much and know that my kids benefit as a result of these awesome people. I have a pretty flexible job, but I just can't stomach taking on any other big commitments. I feel we're overextended already.

DH goes on field trips.

I always sign up to send in something for class parties. I also volunteer for one class activity per year (end of year party or other special event, like an assembly). I volunteer to do the grunt work of stuffing folders 2 or 3 times a year.

I attend the musicals, but those are in the evening anyway.

I'm a Girl Scout troop leader.

I take DCs to whichever birthday parties they can attend, assuming they want to go. But we also keep activities at a minimum so the weekends are usually not that crazy for us.

I volunteer for both class parties and come in for my child's birthday month celebration. I've been room parent (K) and co-room parent (1st). Between DH and I, we make it to about 1/2 of the PTA meetings. It would be more only they fall on a night when DH usually works late and childcare can be an issue. DS has only had 3 field trips in 2 years. I chaperoned 1. My work is somewhat flexible.

I don't generally attend anything that happens during the school day, unless it's an end of the year concert type thing. I simply don't have enough leave to cover those things plus all the random days off and sick days for 2 children.

I attend many of the various fundraisers and help out by donating requested items - baked goods, paper goods, etc. to those events. We go to the auction every year and we donate to the HSA. We try to go to the book fair and the school nights at local restaurants as we can. We make an effort to bring our kid to all birthday parties that she's invited to if we are in town.

Either DH or I normally attend one field trip per year for each kid.

PTA - pay our dues, volunteer to help with one or two events per year. No permanent positions that require consistent attendance at meetings.

Cub scouts - attended with kids, went on 1 camping trip per year, went on about half the monthly hikes, attended most of the special events (helped plan a few).

Class parties - helped organize one last year, so I attended that one since I had a bunch of the supplies and stuff. Other than that, I've never gone to a party in the classroom.

My work is somewhat flexible, but only to a degree, and I travel a bit. Travel is the main reason I don't sign up for ongoing commitments, I just can't guarantee I'll be there.

Anonymous wrote:I go on a few field trips and help out with class parties.

+1

I'm a FT working parent with decent flexibility so I do a lot. I'm on the PTA board, I work all the major events (fall festival, book fair, intl night) and I volunteer in the classroom or chaperone a field trip a few times a year. I coach or assistant coach 2 youth sports, lead a girl scout troop (3 troop/council meetings a month) and take my kid to most birthday parties to which she's invited. Last year I also helped out with the school's literary magazine.

At our school, most of the moms work and most of the SAHMs have younger kids they can't easily leave. So the working moms have to do a lot. I figure most of this stuff will fall away after elementary so this is temporary.

I'm organized and don't need a ton of sleep; both of those things help.

I don't have a flexible schedule at all and have a lengthy commute, so it is a challenge.

I attend all PTO meetings (though I am not on the board.)
I try to do 2 field trips/year (one for each kid) though this is hard since they don't give much notice
I volunteered with the school play last year (helping with props and wrangling kids.)
I always bring snack/box tops/etc when asked

I have no involvement in the PTA. Those women are on Crack and our PTA is huge. I'm not needed there and hapoy to stay out of that hanging house.

Of course all bday parties we can attend on the weekends when we don't have sports. I read in class when the kids were little and attended all parties when the kids were little (it calms down in older elementary) about once a month I have lunch with each of my kids. They enjoy that.

All this involvement really comes to a trickle by 4th grade...parents calm down and stop hovering as much.

Anonymous wrote:How many things do you do at your child's elementary school and related activities? This includes PTA involvement, chaperoning field trips, attending class parties, gatherings in the evening for school for fundraisers, concerts, and school events, and taking your kid to classmate's birthday parties on the weekend

What are the sahm gonna do then?

Anonymous wrote:How many things do you do at your child's elementary school and related activities? This includes PTA involvement, chaperoning field trips, attending class parties, gatherings in the evening for school for fundraisers, concerts, and school events, and taking your kid to classmate's birthday parties on the weekend

WOHM here. I've done all of these to various degrees.

Out of curiosity, why do you ask?

I go on a few field trips and help out with class parties.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I try to do one field trip a year but don't believe in all the class parties or most of the PTA BS, so that makes my decision easy.

+1. Most of these time sucks are just make-work tasks created by/for sahms to justify why they are too busy to go back to work.

Not sure I agree. When I was a SAHM, I never participated in it either. I think some people just like to do it...and more power to them because I don't want to do it!

I volunteer about once a month, either at a class party or computer lab or art. I probably go to 2 PTA meetings a year. I don't do fundraisers or much in the evenings or on weekends.