I Are Room Mom Now?

(Edit: My newer post with MUCH more info about Room Mom stuff is here.)

Last week I went to Curriculum Night in Laura's classroom, and afterwards another mom and I were chatting with Mrs. S, the teacher. Mrs. S looked at me and said, "You were the only person to volunteer to be a Co-Room Mom, and nobody volunteered to be Room Mom, so I guess that makes you the Room Mom."


I sort of smiled, trying to keep my expression open, yet non-committal, while encouraging her to elaborate, while trying to look like I might know what the heck she was talking about. Reader, we sent a bunch of forms to school, and I am 99% sure that I did not check the little box that said I wanted to be a Co-Room parent. I checked several other boxes, saying that I wanted to help with reading groups, be a Mystery Reader, and help organize the parties, but I would not have volunteered to be Co-Room Parent, much less Room Parent, because right on the form it says, "When volunteering in the classroom and working with students, the school respectfully requests that other arrangements are made for younger siblings." And see, I have Mr. Hank, my two year-old man friend I take everywhere. Mr. Hank, he don't want no "other arrangements."

So I sort of stammered brightly, and while I was doing that, Mrs. S went on to explain that she is very low-maintenance, and that if I will just coordinate with the parents of the birthday kids each month about the class celebration, and make and maintain the schedule of parent volunteers every week, then the big class Christmas and End of the Year parties are not really any trouble because there are only two, and plenty of people want to help with those. And also, she likes it if they have a seasonal craft every month or so, but nothing too complicated.

When crafts were mentioned, the other mom came to life and allowed as how she had been a preschool teacher and had a spare bedroom filled with kid art supplies. Now, I can do crafts, but it's certainly not where my star shines the brightest, so I turned to her and said, "Please be in charge of crafts." (She didn't positively commit right then, but I'm going to email her into submission.)

So I don't know what happened in there, but somehow I wound up agreeing to do it, or more accurately, pretending that I had volunteered. That woman is persuasive. But when Laura brought home the volunteer forms filled out by all of the parents, for me to collate and make into volunteer schedules, my form was not in the pile, I think because it did not have the little box by Co-Room Parent checked. Hmmm.

I'm not worried about the official duties, though I have a lot going on and don't relish another administrative task, but what gives me pause are all the "unofficial" things that Mrs. S wasn't telling me, probably because a lot of it involves buying her gifts. Last year's Room Mom, who should have been running General Motors, collected a donation from all the families, then sent out an Excel spreadsheet detailing our contributions (anonymously, of course) and what they would be spent on--mainly party slush fund and teacher gifts. So I feel I need a crash course in all the unofficial or unspoken Rules of the Room Parent. Anyone have any experience with this?

There's a meeting of all Room Parents (who are we kidding, let's just say moms) next week. So maybe I'll get briefed. But I would love to hear any tips or cautionary tales. If I am going to do it, I don't want to screw it up and be lackluster, you know? Help?






(This has been a post for DOES NOT Work For Me Wednesday.)