It seems like Summer has been never ending this year. Even though the temps have dropped a bit, the humidity is still ridiculous.
As are some of our parents at school. The last couple weeks have just been plain awful. We planned our annual Grandparents Breakfast after much debate and with much hesitation. This event is huge and tends to spiral out of control no matter how thorough we are.
In years past we've instated an RSVP program. With over 400 people attending, we have to. Shopping for this event is a headache and without a head court is nigh on impossible. We had 426 people RSVP by the cut off date. One of our board members got a great idea of issuing tickets that way those who had RSVPd would get priority admission. Anyone without a ticket would have to wait.
Then people lost their minds.
"Can I add one person to my list?" "My mom's plans changed so can she & my dad and our 3 kids attend?" "I never got a form" "My form was lost" "I turned in my form but the teacher can't find it"
All of this for some coffee, juice, fruit & a pastry of some sort.
One grandparent texted me on FB. Seeing as how I was busy in Book Fair that day, it took me a couple hours to reply to her. I let her know that unfortunately the tickets had gone home and her option was to split the kids with the grandparents or to wait with the non-ticketed group.
72 year old women shouldn't behave this way, but she didn't like my reply so she texted a teacher who is a mutual friend. This teacher told her she had no control over the event but to try contacting me. She then emailed our PTO address which I received around 7 that night.
She got an answer but didn't like it so tried to get someone to give her the answer she wanted. It didn't work.
She then replied to my email saying her 8 year old granddaughter told her that kids didn't need tickets so she was okay adding the additional grandparent. I let her know that her 8 year old was indeed wrong. She countered with "of course I wouldn't believe her."
But you did.
And, how many grandparents do these kids have anyway? Some kids were showing up with 6 or more people. Maybe 2 grandparents on dad's side, 2 on mom's & what? Great grandparents???
Anyway..
I was tucked away in the library where people were happy to spend money on books for their darling grandkids. Feedback on the breakfast was good.
My volunteers in the gym were insulted, griped at and other nasty things. Parents who came in to take pictures couldn't be bothered to pitch in and help.
People can always find the time to criticize but when it's time to help they scatter like roaches.
I've enjoyed my time helping at SuperAwesomeSchool but I have to admit, I'm feeling very let down this year. And it's trickling over to my home life. I'm sure it's my perception but there are people (No! Not Hunter!!) who should be in my corner but it seems like I'm a burden to them. If I don't initiate contact there's a problem. If I'm around them, it seems like they're doing me a favor by spending time with me and my family.
Sorry for the whiny vent. I'm trying to get out of this funk because it's just NOT like me. I need to accept that not all of our parents are going to step up. I need to accept that they are going to criticize and then pretend to be nice to my face. I need to accept that people give what they can in relationships and that I can't control that----it's them who will have regrets in the end. Not me.
*sigh*
Honey, I know Sunshine is your career, but maybe it is time to relinquish some of your duties. She can still be your amazing career, but you can delegate some of the work, like the PTO stuff. Just volunteer for the school without the added pressure of belonging to the organized parent part. Then, tell everyone you've done your bit, and you want to relax. Then, stick to it, and only do the fun things like field trips, or whatever.
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