PTA Guilt

Before I had kids I always imagined that I would be the perfect mom. I seriously thought that I would have a snack ready for my kids to enjoy when they got home from school,and that we would sit down together and happily do homework. My house would always be clean and that I would be the super volunteer mom always helping in the classroom. Needless to say I pretty much don't do any of those things, except the volunteer part. And that was by accident.

At the end of last year I was feeling pretty guilty about never going in and helping in Noah's class. I did sign up to help but no one called me and I never offered beyond that. I figured that since Ben would be in school half day and Zack would be in school a couple days a week that I had a few free hours that I could help. I filled out the little green PTA paper they sent around and signed up for anything but room mom. That would be too much work.

The PTA president was in a previous ward so she called and asked me to be a commissioner. She caught me on an especially good day and I agreed to be the education commissioner because it seemed like the least amount of work. I would have to help set up the take home reading library (by getting volunteers and making sure the books were switched out) and do a few other things. My co-commissioner is a friend, neighbor and my visiting teacher so I figured it could be fun.

To make a really long story short, it turned out to be a way bigger job than any of us thought it would be. What we didn't know is that we would be completely in charge of setting up & running the take home reading library. We have 30 teachers (K-3) that we have to send crates of books home to everyday. Before we could send the books, we had to stamp, tape and label them. We have over 600 titles and 6 copies of each title. I hand wrote nearly 3600 labels. I also created the system to catalog all the books which includes two sets 27 alphabet cards (there are 2 for A) with all the books on that level listed. Instead of a few hours a week, I spend about 4 hours a day at the school and more at home working on the library.

Now instead of PTA guilt, I have tired wife guilt, neglectful mom guilt, messy house guilt, lots and lots of other guilt. I figure now I have served time enough to last me through all my kids. Maybe in a few years I will volunteer again for something a little easier, like room mom.