Am I being unreasonable?

[flustered]

I have volunteered to help on a School trip in reception class. I found out from another parent today that I will not be allowed to be with my Daughter. I am going to find this very hard. Part of me wants to go to her teacher and say that if I can't have my own child with me then I am not helping. The other part keeps telling me not to rock the boat and when we actually get on the trip the teacher won't be able to stop her coming to me. None of the parents are particularly happy about the set up. I can understand it with older children but these are 5 year olds that have only been at full time school a few months. Why can't we have our own children with us?

It's not that I disagree. I certainly wouldn't take a day off work to help a totally different class on a school trip. It's just that it seems to me you are saying too contradictory things. You think help shouldn't be about 'me and mine' but then if you are going offer help that costs you real effort it has to be for the benefit of you and your dc that's your 'focus'.

two even...

I see what you mean.

I suppose what I am trying to say is that I see this type of contribution (in my case) to the class, not to my DC as an individual.

Perhaps I am also thinking about it with regards to my own personal circumstances, so to find childcare for my two pre-schoolers and go on Reception and Year 1 school trips quite a big deal, so I wouldn't expect that of another parent who has no real connection with the class.

You are making me think too hard about my wording now!

I think most people's help is tied in just this way. Perfectly normal, it seems to me. After all, who would volunteer for trips if they had no kids at the school? Interesting though, that being a parent of a pupil immediately makes the helper responsible and trustworthy - I don't suppose schools would take non-parents as helpers. After all, parents are never sadists or perverts are they....?

foxy "There is no point a Yr 2 parent going on a Reception school trip, they have their own class to invest their energies in."

This is how all the trips are done in my dcs school. If your child is going on a trip then you don't. Its the same with reading and helping out in the classroom. You can do things in your childs classroom such as help with displays and such but you don't do things like reading where you interact with the children in your own childs class.
There is never a shortage of volunteers from different year groups.

We also have helpers who aren't parents, mainly (if not exclusively) from the parish. I helped out in the school before my dcs were born.