Is it my imagination or are volunteers less forthcoming these days?

[Limesaregreen]

Have name changed. My youngest has left school now but I still get the odd call to 'help out'. Now when they were at school I was more than happy to help out, sat on the PTA at both primary and secondary, extra pair of hands on school trips, sports trips, school concerts, cycle proficiency etc. etc. as did loads of the other Mums and Dads whether they worked or not.
After my youngest left nursery, I heard that certain things that used to happen, no longer did in the same way (nursery eventually closed as no-one volunteered to be on the committee to run it). Cycling proficiency no longer happened after youngest left school as no-one wanted to get involved. Very few school trips seem to happen now and high school is struggling to get people to help for prom night and end of year show (hence the call).
I've said I'm not available. I've done my time and moved on and feel no guilt about that, it's for current parents to step up to the mark. But is this the new norm now??? What's it like for those still with kids at various ages in school??

Exactly this.
Longer working hours and much more red tape and paperwork.

I think so I know they really struggled to get volunteers for sports day. I think people have gotten out the habit of volunteering (pandemic) also less SAHP in the early years now.

I used to volunteer tons at my DC school. But as others have said, I got more and more taken for granted and as a previous poster has astutely commented, yep, I was pretty annoyed when during lockdowns I barely heard from school. Generally I just got a bit sick of helping out, going in and listening to kids read and that, but at the same time noticing my kids never got to go and read to anyone? I got to feeling like I was a total mug, and stopped.

I was a scout leader, but got thoroughly fed up with “I can’t help (once a term) because I work” or “why aren’t you organising a weekend camp again later in the summer?”. Huge demands from parents who wanted cheap childcare but didn’t want to support anything. As a PP said: I left, everyone loses out.

So far this term, I’ve been asked to run a disco, go on a weekend residential and organise breakfast club. On top of the actual teaching job I do. I have politely declined several of those wonderful opportunities.

I used to all the time when I was part time but I can only do evening things like discos or weekend school fairs now.

Scout/Guide etc leaders and helpers are epic, I always put my name down to help out but it does tend to be the same group of people that will.

I used to volunteer a lot but i was put off by the way volunteers are treated and talked about by people who dont help out.

I think people have cut back a bit on obligations they felt before covid. It's more acceptable in our own minds to be a bit less busy than we were before.

I don't know a single SAHP and my kids are between 4 & 17. All the parents/step parents of my kids friends work full time and no time for volunteering in the school day. Most don't log off until after 5pm if wfh or get home from work until around 6/7pm. There just aren't enough parents who don't work to volunteer to help with these things.

I agree with this but loads of people cutting back at once seems to be leaving big shortages. I see it with youth sports, there were always the core volunteers and some very reluctant to help out but now hardly anyone puts their name forward and I wonder if people are making up for lost time on the weekends 😊

Probably because people that work don't have the time to ANYMORE, they're working every hour under the sun to make ends meet.

And people that have long term illnesses and used to volunteer as a way to keep social/busy are too scared to do so now as the government holds it against them when it comes to claiming disability /ESA/PIP.

I wouldn’t have time to volunteer as I work. I don’t know any stay at home parents so no idea who people are expecting to volunteer. As usual it will affect the poorest most. I’m able to pay for extras for my DC so don’t really mind if there’s no free or cheap activities or clubs, but it will mean that those not able to will have less for their DC.

No idea why 'anymore' came out in capitals 😐

Because it’s thankless task that involves far to much time and effort behind the scenes with red tape and legalities.

also with some stuff I’d honestly rather pay more than volunteer. Say guides or something my child might have an interest in it but I may not so I’d rather pay more and have a paid member of staff be there to help. Also having more than one child means I can’t just help out at one club because of got the younger one to watch, then I feel bad for not helping and as such we just don’t go to the club at all.

dh works 50 hour weeks and I work school hours. Need down time.

I echo other people's sentiments. I used to be a scout leader, but got fed up of being spoken to by parents like they'd just wiped me off their shoe. I didn't have a child in the section (I'd originally joined to help out a mate as they were in desperate need of a female leader), so it was no skin off my nose to stop volunteering.
Also I don't know anyone who can afford to be a SAHP at this time.

I agree with the previous comments, but I also think people are generally more self centred and less community minded. I know a number of people who work full time, have young families and still find time to volunteer. I also know hundreds of people who claim not to be able to spare even an hour once in a while in their busy lives and there seem to be more of these people post pandemic. People who volunteer have a particular mindset but it seems to be in decline.

One of the things I did was first responding. I know a fair bit of law & it's going to blow up one day. Volunteers sent to deal with very ill people, without enough resources. When the paramedics may not come in good time & the people in charge were vague about lots of the details wrt liability. May be better regulation in other areas but in mine, volunteers were filling operational gaps.

I volunteered on PTFA and also a local community group as Secretary

On both of these people would criticise, while doing bugger all themselves

In the case of the Secretary the guy who was the Chair was a sanctimonious blow hard who liked to tell me what to do, so I left, and let him do it himself!

Everyone needs to be DBS checked now to volunteer in schools.

So you'll probably find that all of the 'upstanding pillars of the community' are probably all closet sexual perverts and failed the checks.

I have volunteered in different settings over the years but somehow it seems to attract some officious types of people and it's hard to bite your tongue

I wouldn’t have time to volunteer as I work.

Do you honestly think all the millions of people who volunteer for things across the country are all unemployed / retired ? That's hilarious

One of the things that got me was the casual sexism - the assumption that the women would make the tea and coffee, set up, supply and run the bake-sales. . .

If you want to know just how much of a chauvinist a man is - serve on a committee with him. . .

I used to volunteer for an organisation and it was a lot of work but what really annoyed me was the feedback from many users of the service and being criticised for tiny problems without the hours and hours of work being acknowledged. I remember saying to a woman that she was quite welcome to join us if she wanted to influence how we organised an event but apparently she was far too busy!

I'd really like to volunteer tbh, but I'm not sure it's possible if you're severely chronically ill - I don't think I could ever be reliable enough and I'd hate to let anyone down. I've been thinking about it a lot lately as we are moving soon. But I just can't think of anything I could do where reliability and being able to go out, etc, wouldn't be an issue.

Fewer people have the attitude that if you (or your DC) benefit from something run by volunteers then you should be prepared to take a turn of doing some of the work. Instead they feel it’s owed to them.

Obviously there are a small number of families where no-one can help out in any capacity, ever. And there are loads of families where no-one could commit to a regular (eg fortnightly) slot to help out. But... there are plenty who just don’t see why they should bother, even for a once-a-year event.