Pta's - Are You Involved? Why or Why Not?

I have two school-age daughters. I'm completely involved in their school work and activities, but I'm not involved in the PTO. Let me be clear -- I think the PTO provides a wonderful service for the school. I support the fundraisers, and I help at certain functions, but I don't attend meetings or volunteer to chair committees. The main reason is that I'm a single mom, and I work full time. I have very little unscheduled time, and I guess I prefer to spend it other ways...like with my girls.

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I would love to volunteer and help out at our local PTA, but truth be told I have a full time job and some of this stuff happens when I'm at work.

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I am invloved with my son's PTO and have enjoyed volunteering for the school fundrasiers and activities. I do this simply to support my son and the school that he attends now and that my 2 other children will soon attend. There seems to be decent support at the PTO meetings and the other activites that the PTO is involved in. If I could make one suggestion , it would be to try and not make the PTO so clicky. We need to stay on task and remember that we are here to support our children, their school and their education. Some parents seem to get really wrapped up in being an officer and being in charge. That makes it a little harder to want to spend time with these ladies. Even for the sake of your children.

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I am not involved with my son's pta at all for the simple reason that they meet in the middle of the day during the week. Granted it is a private school so maybe they assume that all the moms are at home because they can afford not to work. I think its the silliest thing I've ever heard of. I would be more then happy to go if they were planned for after work but I'm not taking a day off of work to sit around and chat with a bunch of moms about school.

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I am not involved in the school PTA. I am a teacher ad truth be told...I have no time. Most teachers are forced to go to these meetings. It isn't because we don't care. But we have meetings before school, meetings after school, parent-teacher conferences, after-school tutoring, ESS, and then we still need to grade papers, plan lessons, call parents, have team meetings... I go into school at 7 AM and leave at 5pm most days. I have a husband and a 4 month old I want to be with to...So those PTA meetings...don't happen. I think the same goes for many people. Between work and family business...there just isn't enough time in the day.

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I'm vp of my children's pta but there are probally only 6 of us that attend and help out regularly. it keeps me busy and i like being there, but we do ahve other parents that help out in the calssrooms and such on a regualar basis that can't for whatever reason be apart of the pta. there are other ways outside of pta to be involved in your children's schooling and i don't think any one way is better or worse tahn any otehr but i like that i am involved to such a degree.

No I am not a member of the PTA. I have a 9 year old handicap son. He has autism, totally deaf, cerebral palsy, brain damage, developmental delay ... just to name a few. When he's not in school, I have to spend all of my time with him. With his autism it would not be a good thing to take him to meetings and stuff like that. Certainly you can understand my logic. I spend time looking for resources and activities for him. With all the help that is out there, they don't deal with children with multiple disabilities. They deal with either autism or deafness, not both. Schools should offer more for handicap children, you know, they are just like normal children. They just have some problems.

I am not involved in PTA. I do however participate in all fund raisers etc. that the PTA organizes. I would like to participate more, but am just too busy. I have 3 children and I work full time out side of the home 5 evenings each week.

I am just now becoming more involved in my daughter's shool PTA this year. I have worked full time outside the home until I was layed off just after school started this year. I have been attending meeting and volunteering in the classroom but not chairing any committees because I am uncertain what my work situation will be on the long term. I am so grateful for all the work that the Moms in the PTA do for our children and school faculty and if I was able to be a stay-at-home Mom, I would love to be more active. I do believe though that many of us Moms who are trying to balance family and career, find themselves just trying to keep up with their jobs, work related activities, family obligations, and the activities that their children are in, i.e. sports, girl scouts, cheerleading, student council, and student orchestra. My daughter does all of these and it is always my goal just to try to keep up with her and her events.

I am the Chaur of three committess for my PTA. There are about 280 students and there are maybe 50 active parents on the PTA. I think alot of people misunderstand what purpose the PTA serves and why we participate. I am involved because I want my children to see me involved in their education. I want them to know that I value education, therefor they should value education. Good Luck.

am definitly. we just started up our our network. the northeast ohio early childhood pta. though we are affiliated with any school, our membership is open to anyone and everyone interested in learning more about their community schools. we meet once a month at the mentor library and a lot of us moms get together socially as well. We offer educational speakers and seminars and playdates-so us stay at home moms can actually speak to other adults!!! Hope this helps! Our website is: www.neoecpta.com

Thanks-
M.

My son does not go to a school with a PTO/PTA yet, and I am not sure at what level I will be involved. My mom was on the PTO/PTA when we were in school. She started out small and through the years became more and more involved. By the time my youngest brother was done with school she was voted the longest PTO member that year. Something she took pride in. To her it was a way to not only know what is going on in the school but also have a say in it.

I've been involved in PTA for 8 years now! I do find however that it's the same parents that volunteer for everything and that does get frustrating after a while. The excuse that you work, at least in our school system is no excuse not to participate! There are lots of things you can do to participate while working. We collect box tops, parents that work can count the box tops for the committee chair, you can send in paper products, food etc...for class parties or school functions when asked. Our schools all have some type of fall festival or something that is in the evening, you can volunteer for that. I like participating because my kids enjoy me being there at the school or at the function. I've been a room coordinator (room mom) many years, I've been a co-chair on the school fundraiser committee and the last thing I did I was a co-chair for spirit day where once a month we would hand out a treat during lunch for the children. I have to admit, last year I did not do as much as usual because I was a bit burnt out but I still volunteered for some things. I think that's a shame that your parents don't want to get involved. PTA is very important in making a school successful!

S.