Ok is this a normal amount of involvement parental involvement ?

[naughtymummy]

DS is in reception at alovely state primary. We are realy happy with it and he is making good progress. In the last 2 weeks we have been asked to;

1. give a donation for the bottle stall 2)Bake a cake for the cake stall 3)Attend Xmas fair(friday afternoon) 4)Help take them to a pantomine( friday) 5)Attend carols in church (monday) 6)Make a hat for a hat competion (today) 7)Attend carols at school at 930 am for an hour (tommorow)
2. Provide food for Xmas party( thurs)

We are finding it a real challenge to keep up with all this as we both work. But I don't want DS to be the only child who does'nt have an Xmas hat etc TBH these things don't seem very voluntary to me. Am I alone in this ?

Naughty, fair enough about the Christmas hat. But do you have to do ALL of them? Surely it is on a voluntary basis eg bake cake for cake stall, attend X'mas fair etc ...

I pick and choose which activities I get stuck in and is already a LOT I do. I have been rather busy getting home from work last few weeks getting my X'mas thingys together for dd 5 Reception. I have to do them for ds 2 at nursery too, though less.

Seeker speaks sense

It is normal, but everything is voluntary!

It's normal, but you don't have to do it all. Choose what you want and ignore the rest - and hang on to the fact that this stuff only happens at primary level, so will be for a limited time only. Also, there are plenty of working parents who don't have time for slavish school involvement, so don't feel guilty for not getting up at 5am to bake cakes.

Sounds about normal to me as well. This year I have so far sat up well past midnight sewing shepherd costumes (cos I'm too mean to buy ready made ones), squeezed mince pie baking into evenings after work, had to take a half day to see the nativity play and that's not counting all the money I've had to fork out for various things. I have also drawn a line at the carol concert.

I love Christmas but keeping up with the dcs' school requirements can be overwhelming.

In my school ~

1. give a donation for the bottle stall (optional) 2)Bake a cake for the cake stall (optional) 3)Attend Xmas fair(friday afternoon) 4)Help take them to a pantomine( friday) (volunteers) 5)Attend carols in church (monday) (optional) 6)Make a hat for a hat competion (today)(NO!) 7)Attend carols at school at 930 am for an hour (tommorow) (optional)
2. Provide food for Xmas party( thurs) (we provide)

I have 3 DCs at 2 different schools (inf and jnr)
Over the last month we have had
Christmas fair for each school - requests for cakes, bottles, help, your cash! etc
Nativity play for each - pls produce 3 x costumes
Attend said plays - the DC were in 3 different ones
School carol concert for DS2
School carol concert for DS1 and DD
3 further carol events for DS1 and DD who are in choir
Christmas disco for DS1 and DD
Take in specified food for Christmas party x 3
Dress DS1 up as Victorian child! (in last week of term, did think that a bit ill-timed tho apparently it was fab)

This is always a busy half term!

Now some of these were voluntary (eg attending concerts etc - in fact I did have to miss one) but I like to support them and the school.

Plenty of people don't get to see the concerts and so on thru work commitments tho - don't worry too much about that.

I have 3 DCs at 2 different schools (inf and jnr)
Over the last month we have had
Christmas fair for each school - requests for cakes, bottles, help, your cash! etc
Nativity play for each - pls produce 3 x costumes
Attend said plays - the DC were in 3 different ones
School carol concert for DS2
School carol concert for DS1 and DD
3 further carol events for DS1 and DD who are in choir
Christmas disco for DS1 and DD
Take in specified food for Christmas party x 3
Dress DS1 up as Victorian child! (in last week of term, did think that a bit ill-timed tho apparently it was fab)

This is always a busy half term!

Now some of these were voluntary (eg attending concerts etc - in fact I did have to miss one) but I like to support them and the school.

Plenty of people don't get to see the concerts and so on thru work commitments tho - don't worry too much about that.

OOps it wasn't that interesting