note: this is rant about selfish idiot parents

If the sky is blue... document it
If the grass is green.... document it

why?? because there will be some pain in @ss parent who will disagree and since it is not documented, they could be right, and cause your PTO board the need to stock up on antacid and Nightol.

SO.... at our last PTO meeting we were short funds for T-shirts for our Jog-A-Thon. A pain in the @ss parent says "I'll get some T-Shirt sponsors"
You know the parent, the one who always complains but doesn't help.
We're thinking great she's trying, might there be strings attached??? Oh boy are there and I want to hang myself with them right now.

Boy this woman has a set!! and I ain't talkin' bout china.
So after using PTO letterhead, to request a "sponsorship" from local business, with the company's name in return, going on the T-shirt. This woman sends in her daugthers Jog-A-Thon envelope and writes in a letter "I want the monies(I)raised to go under my daugther's Jog-A-Thon donation total"

We write her a letter,stating we spoke with the pricipal and it wouldn't be fair, the monies weren't received as a donation for a single student, you used PTO letterhead etc. Numerous logical arguements, well,at least logical to decent people.

She gets the letter Friday and proceeds to make harassing calls to all our board members. why she is right and we are wrong.

After a weekend of phone calls and hours of discussion amoungst the board, we still are wondering do you punish the kid for having a selfish parent? Do you give into a terrorist?
Because you should know, we are handing out prizes tomorrow.

Do we have documentation that those "sponsorship" funds shouldn't be included? no, because as self repecting people, that concept has never crossed our minds, or the board before us, or the board before them. we never considered someone would be that selfish. what fools are we.

So the decision made this weekend was to give the kid a class winner prize. yes, I know it won't be good enough in the parents eyes, nothing would.

Pretty much, the only reason she's getting that prize is because the kid shouldn't get raw end of the deal because we don't have documentation, and her parent is a selfish @ss. We figure that kid is gonna have many more opportunities to reap the benefits of the parents gaul, and far be it from us to add to that childs embaressment.

Is it the right decision? I'm not entirely sure, but I know that it is the only desision that let's me sleep at night, because I don;t want the the kid who is stuck in middle to be hurt/embrassed/disappointed by us the PTO, because it is all about the kids anyway.

We sure as hell are going to document it ALL at our next board meeting. even our reasoning of why we're giving her the prize, because "she shouldn't be punished because her mothers a selfish moron." I think we might get in trouble if we write those exact words.

I think to myself, how can you document things that you can't forsee?
what if you can't forsee issues, because you (we) are decent, thoughtful, caring people, and those kinds of thoughts wouldn't cross our mind, to think hey we need to address that before it happens.

wish us luck tomorrow, because you know that this most probably isn't the end of the story.

thanks for listening to me vent....