Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums General Discussion Remind me to never be Homeroom Mom again

I agree- not a fun job.

However, I agreed to do it this year, because last year I was questioned about why I volunteered so much. Figured, I'm allowed/ expected to be there if I'm a room parent.

I live in an area where people are too poor for room mom crap. It is a blessing and depressing at the same time.

At DD's old public there was actually a list of people begging to be room moms and they were supposedly selected by lottery. Why? Because horrible principal would not allow parents in the school. If you were a room mom you got access, at least occasionally, to see what was happing to your kid 7 hours a day. Of course the "lottery" always seemed to select the parents that were the least likely to ruffle any feathers regardless of what they witnessed. Go figure. 1st grade I entered the lottery but 2nd grade I ran for the hills.

I am glad that room mothers arrange for teacher presents and in-class parties. I never go to in-class events, so my only interaction with the room mother is to write the occasional $10 check, which I am happy to do.

Since room mothers don't have all that much work to do, maybe having a single room mother would be sufficient and eliminate friction.

The mother who leads our Cub Scout den is great. Let's not get too cranky about volunteers.

soooooo true. just one horror story and then i'll leave it, but last year one of the other parents literally said to me, "well, you're the class mom, so i'll text you whenever i can't pick [kid] up, and you can just take both girls home with you and i'll just come get her later."

uhhhh, right.

I still don't get it. A "Homeroom Mom" volunteers for what?

I hope you also offered to help her pay her bills on months she is short of money. /snark

22B... it was NUTS!

we were in charge of teacher gifts (collecting money/deciding on the gift/presenting it), organizing fundraising, apparently going on all field trips (which NO ONE told me about - and i work, so... that was amazingly convenient,) sending all email communications from the admin/teachers (and fielding questions) about uniforms/homework packets/event RSVPs & reminders to show up/early dismissal days/workshop signups/etc. we had to attend a three-hour meeting once a month (during business hours, also awesome!) to get a briefing on school things and present any "class issues" to the SuperMom Overlords - i mean, the Mom Co-Ordinators.

and ha, daytripper75! honestly, the level of entitlement was surreal.

To host class celebrations. Halloween party, Valentine's party. To bring together donations when there is a class project. Right now my daughters school is doing Marble Runs in the hallway. The room mother asked us to bring in toilet paper tubes, marbles, and masking tape. It's a once a month for a couple hours type of job here.

It used to be that room mothers would bake cupcakes and bring them in on special days and the kids would eat a cupcake at the end of the day and they'd call it a party. At Halloween, dd's school had 4 rooms of activities, a buffet line, crafts, mad science type experiments and I don't know what else. Everything is bigger, Bigger, BIGGER now...

I'm a little fuzzy on the details myself, but my impression was that a "homeroom mom" (homeroom wasn't a thing, since we did everything in one room, so she was "class mom" instead) just pitched in on special occasions back in my days. I certainly saw mine maybe twice a year.

My DW currently fills a similar role in DD8's gifted classes. She almost never goes in, and when she does, she's called in by the teacher to help on a special project. It just so happens that they're baking tomorrow, and DW is going in for that.

However, DD8's homeroom has a class mom that seems to be there every time we go by. Again, I'm fuzzy on the details, but it's my impression that she's doing a lot of the things that an assistant teacher used to do in elementary school... because the state is too cheap to pay anyone to do it.