This morning, I got up at 5:45. Jogging? No. With kids? No. I had to go pick up coffee I had gotten donated from Dunkin Donuts. For my family? No. For a hungover group of partiers who had crashed at my house? No.
This was for the PTA "Dailies with Dad" event at the book fair at Avery's school. That's right. I said PTA.
Here's the deal...I don't want to be involved, per se, with the PTA. It's kinda clique-ish and those ladies always seem to be in the middle of a huge controversy or crisis. I've seen it from the teacher side of things and it just doesn't appeal to me. Don't get me wrong. Our school's PTA is phenomenal. They treat their teachers like queens and king(s). It's wonderful. I just don't really want to be a visual member. But I don't want to be totally uninvolved and not-helpful, so I volunteer for behind-the-scenes stuff.
So, since I have little ones at home and can't be up at the school actually working at the book fair, I volunteered to solicit donations for coffee and to bring fruit for this book fair thing, where dads come up to "shop" with their kids in the morning before school.
I get to Dunkin Donuts at 6:10, which was the agreed upon time. Of course, no one there knows what is going on, so I had to wait for all this coffee to be made. So I didn't get to school until 6:30, which is the start time for this "Dad" thing. They were still setting up and it didn't seem like a big deal, but of course, a few minutes after getting there, I hear rumblings of some sort of trouble.
Apparently, my coffee was small potatoes in comparison to the 12 cartons of Starbucks that another mom had acquired. According to the book fair chairwoman, this mom said that Starbucks had donated all these gift cards so she could pay for the coffee and that they would have them ready this morning. Cool, right? Yeah, except that, when I got there, there was a bit of gossip (imagine that...PTA moms gossiping!) that she wasn't going to come through with the coffee and it was a panic. No coffee? At a morning function? Dear Lord, say it isn't so!
So I say "Do y'all need me to run and get some more coffee?"
Why do I speak? The book fair chair gets on the phone with Starbucks. They don't know anything about it. They never gave anyone any "free" gift cards for the PTA or anything else, but they will hurry and get 6 cartons ready ASAP. I rush up to Starbucks, ASAP, and they are all eye-rolly and like, "What a nightmare." I guess it takes one whole urn to fill a traveler box. And each urn takes 5 minutes to make. So I'm like "So, how many do you have made?"
None. "Oh really, none? Um, so how long do you think until it's ready?" Oh, like 15-20 minutes. Maybe.
Uh, so did I mention that my husband is waiting at home with the kids so he can take Avery to the Dad thing and then go to work? Yeah...I said I'd be home around 6:30 and now I'm at Starbucks and it's 6:45. And the Starbucks people are all pissy because they didn't know about it and they are all talking to each other about it like I can't hear. And I finally said "I didn't know either. I was just dropping off Dunkin Donuts (take that, Starbucks!) and fruit. I just volunteered to come get it." One girl says "Well, if we had known, we'd have it ready." I say "Yeah, well, apparently, this girl is full of it. She said she was getting it, when, all along, she knew she wasn't. And it's, like, a really big deal and everyone is freaking out and in an uproar about it."
She says "What group is this for?" And I say "Sparks PTA." And I think I saw a flash of pity in her eyes. Or maybe condescension. I'm not sure, but it wasn't good. Like "Oh sheesh, another one of these ridiculous PTA ladies, freaking out over a couple of pots of coffee. What, are you going to be late for your tennis lesson if I don't rush?"
And it was just at that moment that I just deflated. How did I get here? How did I end up at a Starbucks at 6:30 in the morning, freaking out because there is not enough coffee at the book fair? How?
Oh yeah. Avery. School. Being an involved mother.
Dadgum kids. They are really putting a cramp in my coolness. Might as well get a van and some Mom jeans and forget it.
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3 comments:
Um...cool it will ya on the PTA?!! I happen to be one of "those moms". I guess I will have to ask one of our teachers if we have the same reputation as your PTA moms. What is that...helpful, raising thousands of dollars, taking up their free time for lunches, breakfasts, for the teachers/staff?, causing gossipy problembs? Maybe they do have to run to tennis after, or get their nails done. So what? Aren't you working your ass off right now at home with 3 kids maybe to be rewarded a couple of years of you time eventually? Maybe there are a few gossipy spoiled stay at home moms but for the majority of the PTA I have been envolved with, well they work pretty darn hard considering it is ALWAYS the same moms who volenteer. I still love ya.
Hey, I'm a fan of all the stuff that PTA does for teachers and the school. I said I thought they were amazing. Teachers (when I taught) didn't talk bad about them...it was all the gossip and bad-mouthing that parents would say. The only thing that school officials ever had to do was quit letting PTA moms work in the front office b/c information kept getting "leaked" into the neighborhood...but all of us appreciated them so much.
I don't want to be on the board, basically, publicly involved in everything. I want to help without getting into any of the bad stuff.
Is that a good enough explanation? Sheesh, now I'll just wait for all the people who have a van to come down on me! Wait, before any of you do, let me just say that most of the vans I see are much nicer than my car. It's my own insecurities that keep me from having one...it's the smartest, most practical thing to have when you have kids, especially when you have three with car seats. I'm just a mess, so there. This post was meant to make fun of myself, not anyone else.
I never thought I would live to read a blog about you doing PTA stuff... oh, what we do for our kids don't we? I have to go with Dodi on this one. I am a former PTA President and a fairly good one, I think, at that but yes, the PTA moms do get their undies in a wad. And, yes, Dodi's PTA is awesome. But, put 25 women in a room who have nothing but time on their hands (for the most part) and you've got your hands full! Being on the board is for 2 types of people... one, you really want control because you think your ideas are better than everyone else and you just need the chance to show everone how smart you are OR two, no one stood up when the voting started so you thought, why not. I say kuddos to Dodi for picking up the coffee 'cause without them, PTA wouldn't exist! ;0)
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