This year my boys started at a new school. Which meant I was starting at a new school as well. Last week I attended the first PTA meet-n-greet. I was excited and to be honest a little nervous. So I got my coffee (Starbucks, so already I liked this crowd) and my bagel and listened to the PTA President’s speech. And then it happened:
I went and volunteered for nearly everything.
As I was signing my life away I could hear the ‘lazy’ me on my shoulder saying “what the heck are you doing? You don’t HAVE to volunteer!! Stop! Stop!”….and yet, I continued; Jog-a-thon, Reflections committee, yearbook photographer, Art Docent, Carnival Chairperson, Room mom etc. etc. I could not help myself. And not amazingly with every signature I seemed to be gaining in popularity. I managed to meet most of the PTA committee members and boy did they seem glad to meet me. Or maybe they were thinking ‘ah-ha another volunteer sucker!’. It may have been the giddy haze I was under after realizing I was going to have my days from 8 to 2 all to myself. It is intoxicating to to think of all that time to blog nap cook and clean and do laundry. It can cloud your judgement. This is a real effect…stop by any school on the first week and listen to the mommies talk. They are ambitious :”I think this year I am going to re-paint the house myself”, or “Yes, I plan to write a book and illustrate it as well”….we feel liberated. We feel free. The world is our oyster and Back to school week is our PEARL.
I feel a strong obligation as a SAHM to volunteer as much as possible at my boy’s school. I know, from having been a working mom, the challenges of just trying to get dinner on the table after a long day at work let alone find time to work in the classroom. And more and more woman are working. Which leave the pool of available moms to volunteer diminished every year. I feel like I volunteer to help the kids and school AND to help the other working moms too. So they don’t have to endure the guilt trip from teachers about having ‘no one’ for the reading group on Thursdays. I sign up first. I am the one who says YES with a smile. I don’t complain about it. I am HAPPY to do it.
So many SAHM (some I know, some I over hear when I am eavesdropping passing by) complain and complain about HAVING to help the school. They laugh and giggle and make jokes about how they get out of all of it. They say to me ‘just say no Marcy’ and laugh. Well you know what? I think that is sad. It is a wonderful and rewarding opportunity to be able to volunteer whether for your child’s school or a charity. It is a luxury. It is a privilege. A privilege I would never run from.
Now by the end of the year, I am certain you will find plenty of posts here about my frustrations and sheer exhaustion with my many many volunteer positions. After all I have a photography business, I write and run a household too. So I am certain the ‘glamour’ may wear off a little by the end of the school year…..but internet, please remember I had good intentions. And I hope next year the SAHM mommies who make fun of volunteers like me will see what they are missing and join in.
(photo note: don’t worry people I am not THAT insane to be out picking up litter from the highway. Not YET)
{ 10 comments… read them below or add one }
ok…what is the reflections committee?>
Thank you, on behalf of all moms.
This is how we never get around to writing those novels. We’re so busy doing this stuff.
And this stuff? It’s more important. Our kids are only kids once, and we only get that one chance to make their education the best it can be. Volunteers keep everything running.
Now, can I put you down as a tutor for this year? I’m recruiting.
Good for you. I’m assistant room mom for both boys’ classes, work in each once during the week, will be the assistant to a den leader for cub scouts, and a helper for the other. That doesn’t count singing in the worship band at church. No wonder we just want to blog when we have a free minute!
Have fun with it! I was a classroom aide one year, classroom volunteer for as many years as my daughter would allow me, a Girl Scout co-leader for three years, and a chaperone for various field trips. I miss those days.
–MomZombie
Hmmmm…I think the PTA may have spiked your Starbucks coffee.
I was the lucky kid of a SAHM, the kid whose hand always shot straight up when the teacher asked, “Whose mom can (drive) (bake cookies) (help out in class) (whatever)? and whose mom never made me quit volunteering her.
They are lucky to have you. You are talented at so many things. I hope it all works out for you this year.
I’m sure I could find you a highway or two should the need arise….LOL
I know what you are talking about. My kids spent a week with MIL right before school. The past PTO president called in desperation because several of the officers either moved, went to work full time or couldn’t for some reaso fill their office. I committed to PTO president. I’ve only been a school mama for a year, and now I am the president. I had to speak in front of the parents at back to school night. Not my favorite thing. Then I had to preside over an emergency meeting where we fired the pancake breakfast chair b/c he had problems working and playing with others. He also wanted to change everything, less than a month before the event and go against district policy for PTO fundraisers. Talk about trial by fire.