Bad Moms/STX Films
As pumped as most parents are to have six hours of silence each day come September, there are a lot of things that suck about the start of the school year. Packing lunches, endless permission slips (yes, my child can drink water from the water fountain), homework. But nothing about back to school brings more eye rolls and groans than the mentioning of the PTA. I should know — I'm one of those annoying PTA moms you try to avoid eye contact with by pretending to be on your phone. A) You're not fooling anyone; we can see you. And B) We know you're texting about us. But here's why you should stop making fun of the PTA moms and join us.
Christina Applegate in Bad Moms is the perfect example of how most people feel about PTA moms. They're generally thought of as prissy, tone-deaf snobs who think they're better than everyone else — someone we think it's totally fine to make fun of behind her back. But the truth is, we're not all like that. We know we come on strong, always standing up at meetings sounding like your mom as we beg for parents to help with events. And it's easy to roll your eyes at someone who's that excited about the Holiday Fair.
But it's not because we just have a deep, burning passion for making flowers out of tissue paper that we feel compelled to share with others (okay fine, maybe Susan does, but she's weird like that). We PTA moms are always swarming like sharks in the water for fresh blood because there's a lot of money to raise and a ton of events to plan between now and the end of the year. Caffeine will only get us so far, and without new recruits, we honestly don't know if we'll make it until June. The stress is real.
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Teachers get a ton of well-deserved credit, but PTA moms actually do a lot too. That school dance your kid didn't stop talking about for a week? We were putting up streamers until midnight. The field day where you snapped that amazing photo that's now the background on your phone? Here before dawn slicing watermelon. Those actually kinda cute earrings your youngest brought home from last year's holiday craft fair? Found the tutorial on Pinterest, and you're totally welcome.
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Your kid might be young enough to believe that magical elves are making all these fun things happen at school, but you know the truth. In fact, as a fellow mom, you know better than anyone what it feels like to put tons of effort into dinner and have no one offer to help clean up. That's all we really want: a little help (an occasional thank-you would be nice too).
We PTA parents are the fairies, the pixie dust that helps make school more than just homework and tests. We're the ones raising money and organizing events so every kid can have a better education and make memories with their friends simultaneously. And when we do things like ask for bake sale items without nuts or say that we're going to lower the volume during the spring dance this year, I promise that's not because we're trying to be control freaks. It's because we're working really hard to make sure that every kid in the school gets to participate in everything and no one gets left out. This includes kids with allergies and/or sensory processing disorders. It takes a lot to create an event that's inclusive and fun for everyone.
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Bad Moms was an awesome movie and I will forever have a girl crush on Mila Kunis, but the truth is no one joins the PTA for the praise or the power. Sure, perhaps there's the random weirdo here or there who likes to relive her sorority president days by trying to intimidate the other PTA moms with lectures about gluten and only using name-brand tape when putting up flyers. But most of us are just normal moms who wanted to help out. And when the meetings are over, we totally go get a glass of wine together and talk about how Tape Mom can go stick herself.
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You're probably saying you're too busy, or that you hate socializing. Fine. We get it. But at least write a check and wish us luck or ask if there's something you can do from your laptop or from home. You don't have to come to every meeting to be a part of the group — and you don't even have to like all of us — but we do need you.
So, about next week's fund-raiser …
