To ask as school summer fair and fete season starts

[NynaevesSister]

You volunteer to help, if you can of course, with the fair/fete at your school? I would say, put your name forward, be clear about what you can do/time you can do, and finish when you said you were going to.

But please so pitch in, even if to run a stall for an hour. Maybe the fair looks chaotic, maybe a few stressed people don't necessarily seem friendly on the day! But please don't let it put you off. Children love getting to do something in their school that isn't actual school, and the money raised does help. Especially these days.

If you are in the independent sector, like DD is, the state gives us nothing. We've already paid taxes, we get no rebate or anything to put towards our child's school fees, which I think is really unfair.

Now I'm howling! But that's a whole different debate....

There are some people who simply cant help out with time or financially. They usually have the children who benefit most by the extras provided by the PTA, IME.

YANBU and the sneeriness on this thread is blooming unnecessary!

If your kids attend the school then the PTA money raised goes into enriching their education. One hour is not a lot to ask.

I also think that there should be a "can't help on the day & want to support the PTA - please donate via blah linky" note on all the publicity for parents who would rather just give some money than attend.

YABU. At our school it's the same old faces doing the same old crap, but if anybody new tries to join in then they just get politely ignored.

I tried going along to help a few times, but as nice as they were I got the impression they'd rather I got out of the way and left it to the grown ups.

[b]Another PTA thread really ...
Am I missing something ? Is there now an official start to the PTA season ?[/b]

Yes! Summer Fair/Fete season when those on PTAs across the land gear up for the annual big fundraiser!

Lynette, you raised an interesting point. We don't do things that way. We fundraiser all year then at the next AGM vote to spend the money we raised the previous year. I think the key thing is for a PTA to be realistic at the start about what they can do but if it turns out they weren't, well that doesn't mean they've been rubbish. At least they still made the effort!

Tell me who the cheque should be payable to and stop bugging me.

YANBU to ask but there is a lot of judging on this thread, the summer fair is not the only thing parents are asked to volunteer at and you do actually need people to come and spend money too!

I do Rainbows, Brownies and Guides, for both DS' and DD's school fairs (different schools) i will be rushing back from other events so I plan to go to the school fair, buy a mountain of cakes, pick a shady spot near the stage and spend the entire school fair eating cakes and watching my Rainbows and Brownies in their class performances whilst cheerfully giving my DC money to go off and play on absolutely anything that doesn't involve me joining in, i shall then thoroughly enjoy leaving an event without having to do the clearing up.

In my experience, some money from the previous year is always kept back, just in case the following year isn't so successful. sometimes enough for me to comfortably retire on

I think this years PTA may not have had any future vision, as nothing was put in the newsletter (and there has been no HT, which hasn't helped. The acting HT has had bigger issues to deal with than the nice extras!). It can be a bit disheartening not to know what the money is being spent on. They are now hopping to raise money for bike storage, which I think is a great idea. But letting parents know what money is going towards is important, IMO.

Buster, I'm happy to tell the school not to let my ds on the new tiny playground if people like you will stop moaning and being all passive aggressive. There's a field and a huge existing one he can use.

I was told earnestly that to ensure the PTA were seen as friendly I personally as the chair had to walk round 4 playgrounds at our large primary and introduce myself to every parent and cajole them individually to possibly help out. Errrr no fuck off!

I couldn't help at DS school fayre today as I was busy in my voluntary role. I will certainly be offering to help out at events in the future though when I am able to do so.

I'm not pass agg at all. I'm just sick of people bitching about the PTA "types" and moaning when they don't like the events we put on when they can't be arsed to volunteer on a stall etc. I have no problem with people who don't want to attend PTA meetings, fair enough, people are busy etc. But making snidey comments about us? Having the gall to say they can't help run a stall because they are away...and then they rock up to the fair anyway?! Really? That's why I'm tempted to tell them that their kids can't play on the £30k worth of play equipment me and a small team of brilliant volunteers have worked to buy for the school.
There are 5 of us organising the school fair, and about 20 families out of 220 who help us to run stalls etc. They are NOT queen bee types, just normal mums who want the best for our DDs.

See I detest the 'oh it's so not me doing that PTA thing I am far too ditsy, busy, cool to do that.'

Fuck off no you are lazy and that's absolutely fine but don't turn up and criticise others who have worked bloody hard.

Erm I don't think anyone is saying 'I'm too ditsy to help' . Most of us seen to be saying a) I don't want to b)my experience of the PTA has been shit c) I help when I can d) I can't .

People who work full time/ have 6 children aren't too lazy they just have other priorities. But then these people often can't even turn up to the summer fete for one reason or another.

Yabu. I'm trying to organise a drama performance in 4 weeks time. Kids signed up to it at Easter. We rehearse on Saturday mornings.

It's an absolute nightmare as we never have the same kids each week as they are at various summer fayres.

I sacrifice taking my own kids to their fayres to do this.

YABU to expect everyone to give up summer fairs because you have a drama performance. And YABU to feel that because you choose to stop your kids going that therefore everyone else should.

The parents of the children in your production ABU not to honour the agreement they made when they joined.

Not the fault of the PTAs though.

I never said everyone else should stop going. Ds went today with his grandad.

But when you sign up for a production you should honour that.

And yabu to say I should give up my time & job to run a stall.

I would never judge people for not helping. my pal does nothing for PTA but runs a guide group (her kids tiny). She is a saint! Planning activities for other peoples teenagers every week...

The only thing that riles me is people that don't help and moan. I recently ran our last ever uniform sale before we hand the lot over to the local charity shop. Cue loud complaints about how the second hand uniform will now cost more etc. basically I was the only mug running the sales, have a job now and don't fancy lugging uniform around our large school site making approx £4.50 a time. I did say to the complainers that they were very welcome to take over the running of the sales....silence as the tumbleweed blew across the playground...

See i detest that we are always accused of being too lazy to help. There is a massive difference between i can't be bothered to help and I don't want to help. Considering how many 'don't tar the whole PTA with the same brush' type posts there are on MN it's pretty rude and hypocritical to label everyone who doesn't help as lazy.

On an average week I spend 8 hours running actual meetings for my various units, probably 4 hours doing prep work (depending what we are doing) then I have a job, am studying and have 2 DC, the week of DS' school fair I'm doing 34 hours between my voluntary roles, 19 hours before DD's, so whilst i could find an hour to get to the fair i simply don't have enough energy left to do anything useful, amazing how many parents aren't prepared to help out with their kids units because they are already far too busy with their hour for the PTA though.

There's a mum at school with 7 kids and a disabled DH, she already volunteers at the church and is the first to offer to do behind the scenes bits that she can fit round her schedule for the guides/scouts (like sorting camping equipment and the 2nd hand uniform) she won't help at the summer fair because trying to fit it round the kids is too much and she feels the rest of the PTA judge her but she is far from lazy.

Stalls are run by teachers, TA's, dinner ladies and kitchen and office staff at dd's school fair. HT is usually found on a stall having wet sponges thrown at him or being the goalie in beat the goalie. I bake cakes for the cake stall, send in donations for the raffle and tombola and spend a fortune so feel I do my bit tbh and if I wasn't there to take dd round then a TA would have to take her round so defeating the purpose really.

Gosh there is more to life than school and education. It's fine if you want to spend your free time on cake stalls, but don't berate those of us that don't. I'd rather spend money on him personally, thank you very much.

I have no problem with people who don't want to help. If thats their choice then thats up to them. What I DO have a problem with is people who don't want to help but then bitch/moan about the events that people who DO want to help organise.

As an example we had to cancel a planned disco at fairly short notice because we couldn't get enough parents to help. Cue the outraged parents moaning that their kids were gutted and had been let down because the disco was cancelled!