Written By: Jeanie Chang
thisnext.com
Every year I tell myself that this is the year I'll step back from volunteering on the PTA and being gradeparent or room mom of my kids' classes and not spend every waking minute at my kids' school. Every year, I fail. I end up volunteering to be the gradeparent for my child's class and having three at the same school - you can imagine how busy I get!
This year, I did it again. I decided I could handle being the gradeparent for my 5th grader, 3rd grader and 1st grader's classes. Honestly, I am so overwhelmed right now I don't know where to begin. It's Halloween which means classes are doing Halloween/fall related activities. Don't even get me started on my preschooler's activities and how I need to volunteer at his fall fun day next week!
Anyways, the school has a really fun family event every year called the Parade of Pumpkins which comes complete with a moonbounce, cake walk, bake sale, live music, costume contest, etc. My kids love going and we have a blast as a family. The highlight at the Parade of Pumpkins is the pumpkin decorating contest. You can enter as an individual, family or as a class. Almost every class participates which means the parents are busy, busy, busy as they coordinate the decorating activity with the teacher and kids. As gradeparent, I'm in charge of overseeing and communicating everything. That's why I'm overwhelmed. My sons' teachers (3rd and 1st grade) are excited about participating so the past week I've been planning the pumpkin decorating activity, coordinating, buying crafts, etc. It's been challenging keeping track of which class is doing what and when and what supplies are needed. ARGH!
I kept hoping my daughter's 5th grade teacher did not want to participate in the pumpkin decorating contest because I don't know if I can handle coordinating for a third class. As luck would NOT have it, last night over dinner, my daughter mentioned to me that her teacher had said that day how she wanted the class to decorate a pumpkin for the contest. I looked at my husband in panic. The Parade of Pumpkins is next week which gives me barely any time to put another pumpkin decorating activity together. So far she hasn't contacted me so maybe she's planning on organizing it herself?! That's what I'm hoping!
Here's my point. I'm way too stressed over all of this and it's just Halloween. Thanksgiving and Christmas is right around the corner which means there will be more classroom activities, events and parties to coordinate. I spread myself WAY TOO THIN this year...and last year and the year before. I guess I'm so excited at the start of a new school year to get involved for my kids that I don't think about the consequences. This is where I feel so challenged. I'm a mom of four kids and I want to be involved in ALL OF THEIR ACTIVITIES. By the time my 3 year old is in Kindergarten, I may be too burned out to do any volunteering in his classroom! How sad is that?
In retrospect, I shouldn't have signed up to be the gradeparent for each class. Maybe I should have signed up for one of my kids' classes and then be a volunteer in the other two. I definitely wanted to be as involved as I could this year since it's my daughter's last year in elementary school. By the time the kids are in middle school, there aren't as many volunteering opportunities so I wanted to do as much as I could now. Unfortunately, I'm paying for it. Buying Halloween crafts at Walmart the other day wasn't too much fun because I was too overwhelmed with what had to be done regarding the pumpkin decorating and that's doesn't seem right, does it?
Have you ever spread yourself so thin like this? You had the right heart, but it wasn't the best thing for you to do? I'm still trying to figure out how to best balance all this. It probably will continue to be a struggle until all the kids hit adulthood...if I make it that long. LOL.
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