At Parents Council meetings, they mention the event and introduce the chair. The chair is then left to do everything on her own, outside the meeting. If she is organized, everything is fine. But this is the first event for this year. and the Friday event didn't send out any parent notification until Tuesday. These kids are good about bringing stuff home. The have daily planners and the teachers check them and their backpacks before they leave. So it is not the kids fault. You can't bring home a notice that hasn't been written yet!
i guess it is the attitude that is bothering me most. "Of course I will drop everything and go out to buy a costume, a pumpkin and goodies for this party at the last minute. I will hire a babysitter for my other child and rush in to volunteer at this party at the last minute. I will take time off from my job just to help out at a school party." yeah, right.
This is one of those things you learn right off when you run a parent group. Give parents plenty of notice. every one works and has a busy schedule. be considerate of this so everyone feels included. maybe they don't understand this and I can gently explain it to them. But this attitude does amaze me!
Are you saying that they don't plan these things at PTO meetings and that's why you don't know what's coming up? If that's the case, there's definitely a problem that needs to be addressed.
Are you able to go to the meetings? We have a monthly meeting where preliminary plans are made for about two months time. That way there is time enough to pull everything together.
You could suggest at a meeting that they set up a newsletter or website to keep parents updated. One of the biggest problems at middle school level is getting kids to take the information home that gets handed out. We run into that lot. A blurb in the newspaper's "social scene" column helps with that aspect.
How do I deal with parents who have too much time and money and have totally devoted themselves to their kids? My older son has moved up to a private middle school and these parents are too much! They don't send notices out in a timely manner and don't give out all the necessary info. Then they talk about you if you don't drop everything and run to school to volunteer. How can I get them to realize that they are discouraging parent involvement? My PTO at public school sends out event notices a month in advance and then 2 weeks in advance with lots of details and then a reminder the week of. Parents who volunteer are called a week ahead to confirm, given a brief description of their duties and thanked many times afterward. At this new school, there is a Halloween party on Friday, run by parents and on Tuesday, we haven't even received a notice about it yet. Don't know what type of costumes are allowed, what food they want sent in or what volunteers they need to run games. Parents have careers, kids and homes to run. I schedule my family's life well in advance. I can not drop everything to help with this party and I won't do it. But how do I make them understand that this is not the way to do things?
