Appreciate Your PTSA

I am just as guilty as the next mom of rolling my eyes when confronted by particular members of my PTSA.  I've posted before about the annoying PTA moms.  You know who you are and you're proud of it.  You actually take great pleasure in guilting the single parents who can't make it to your meetings.  You take great joy in belittling the working parents that are just too exhausted to make it there.  You feel as if you're better than everyone else because you make it to each and every meeting, event and party.  You're a better parent, right?  No.  You're giving a bad name to REAL PTSA moms that are judgmental asses.  You're the bad apple that gives a bad name to the whole tree.  So today, I'm not going to focus the majority of my post on the rotten fruit.  I'm going to focus it on the hundreds of good apples out there.

With that ugliness out of the way, we should be thankful for our PTSA.  I know, I know, I'm dodging the rotten tomatoes of those that have the aforementioned butthead PTA parents at their school.  Hang in there, they aren't all like that.  We should be taking a look at the good PTA parents.  Moms, dads, grandparents, aunts, uncles, and more that are focused on making the school a better place.  We should be taking a look at the teachers that work all day and then make time to come to the meetings and make their voices heard because they, too, care and want their schools to succeed.  We should be looking at the the community members that are trying to contribute to making our school an amazing place.  These are the people we should be thankful for.

Maybe you don't know what the PTSA at the majority of schools does.  Let me give you a brief list of what it can include: dinners for teachers during conferences, school dances, pep club for sports events, spaghetti dinners, donuts for dads, muffins for moms, science fairs, talent shows, funding for teachers to have new equipment and/or necessary supplies, funding for kids that can't afford to do special events, and more.  There are so many arms attached to the PTSA octopus that we don't even see.  We don't necessarily realize that it's as important as it is.  The PTSA is our school's voice.  It's the way that our community can speak out to better the next generation.

For every aggravating PTSA parent, there are 20 great ones that just want you to be involved.  Some are better than others at knowing how to make that happen.  Be patient with the new ones because they're doing the best they can and better than most of it could hope to.  The seasoned ones know exactly how to promote growth. They know what the needs of the parents are and how to boost volunteerism within the community.  They spend countless hours of their own time working on PTSA events.  They spend hours on the phone trying to arrange volunteers.  They spend hours in their garage building props for the book fair.  They spend hours cleaning up afterwards when the parents who volunteer forget and don't show up.  They know what they need to do and they learn what they don't know.  They are the champions of our schools' needs.

So take a moment and join your local PTSA for your school.  If you can attend the meetings, try to.  If you can't, try to keep up to date on what's going on.  Shake the hand of the people that are fighting to make your school a better place and know that they are a great asset to your children's school experience.

The 5 Moms at the PTSA Meetings

In honor of the PTSA meetings starting up, I wanted to make a fun post.  Let me preface by saying this is strictly from my own experiences so please don't turn this into a fussy post where you take it all personally.  Without further ado.....

THE FIVE MOMS YOU FIND AT THE PTSA MEETINGS....

The Organizer:  You know this mom.  She may be the President or she may just be a super mom that has the ability to plan and execute every activity all year long (the person that SHOULD be the President of the PTSA).  She's going to be loud and proud and not let her opinion go unheard.  She's going to be on top of things all of the time.  Her kids are probably dressed to the nines every day at school and she never misses a meeting. She'll hear you out every time because she just wants the parents to get involved.  Generally these moms are friendly and light hearted but very strong willed (you have to be for some of these tasks) and a born leader.

The Bitter Wanna Be Organizer  This is the mom that is still ticked off that she didn't win the votes to be the President of the PTSA....or maybe she didn't put her hat in the running but is bitter AT the President of the PTSA because "she could do a better job."  Ironically this mom will only pick and choose her tasks but she will kick butt at every task she does, regardless of how exhausted she gets.  She can be found sitting at the back of the meeting mumbling to another bitter parent or her spouse about how she should be the one leading the meetings. (Side note:  If this mom DOES get to be President and sees how hard it is, it's humbling for her and her attitude can sometimes change for the positive).

The Super Involved Stay at Home Mom  This mom might not directly want to be involved in the staff of the PTSA but she definitely wants to help.  She's at every even helping and volunteering.  She is often the mom that uses Pinterest as her secret weapon and can create anything with a little whimsy.  She will often drive to and from meetings or help out the moms that can't make it to the meetings or events due to work.

The Barely Makes it or Comes Late Working Mom  Guilty as charged.  These moms work on schedules that either have them coming in late or leaving early so they can still make it to their job.  They want to be involved but can't always be at the events that occur during the day.  In fact, they need crazy amounts of planning in order to be able to make it there period.  Their intentions are good but their ability to be in two places at once is very evident.

and finally....

The Spectator  These are the parents that come to vote and that's about as far as their involvement goes.  It's not a bad thing.  They may join in once or twice if they get a special call from the PTSA staffers but they generally are just coming to the meetings to know what's going on in their kids' lives. 

and an added bonus..... the Absentee Ballot:  These are the parents that pay the fee, join the PTSA and then never do another thing the whole year.  Still important for paying the fees and contributing, these parents are absolutely never at any meetings or events the whole year.  It's not that they don't care about their kids, they just don't care about the PTSA and they CERTAINLY do not want to volunteer.

Again, this post is designed to be fun so have a little giggle at where you see yourself in here.  Get involved where you can when you can and support your PTSA!