Too Many Folders

It is not a great secret that I've gotten well-involved with my children's school.  Some days, I think I've gotten too involved.  Involved to the point that I don't have time to get anything else done during the hours the children are at school, other than work on school things.  And then suddenly another opportunity presents itself; it's an opportunity that really needs someone who can dedicate the time to it, oh, and it's important.  So I find myself stepping up to even more responsibility.

It started simply enough, at the New Parents Welcome meeting prior to the start of school I was targeted (yes, I think that phrase is appropriate) by two of the existing volunteers to step up to a position titled the "New Parent Liaison."   They were looking for someone new who was outgoing who would be willing to be the speaker for and to new parents at the school.  I accepted the job and I have learned far more than I would have expected from the role.

As an aside, I had to pass on my position to another new parent for the coming school year.  Did I target someone to be my successor?  You bet I did.  She is going to do a fantastic job and I am relieved because I have picked up more additional jobs than I expected.

So there's the Fundraising committee.  I got pulled into that when I was at Starbucks one morning and there was a committee meeting and I looked either capable, available or just vulnerable.  I attend the Parent Teacher Association meetings because as the New Parent Liaison you're suppose to go to those meetings (something I didn't know when I accepted the position) and at those meetings I tend to offer to help here and there and wherever.

Shortly into the school year one of the students in my son's class graduated to the next class level.  Would I be willing to take over the Room Parent role from that child's mother even though I was new and wasn't sure what that job entailed?  Okay, sure, why not.  And then later on, would I be up for being room parent for two classes since I had children in both Toddler Houses?  Okay, I'll take on that too.

The staff noticed I was willing to help out with odds and ends here and there.  I now run Costco runs for the school and come in to the office to help when they have someone out with a sick child.  I've even been asked to help with creating invoices for parents from a fundraising event.

Then, unexpectedly, I was approached by our head of school to join the board of trustees.  Honored? Yes.  Anxious because of the amount of work it might entail?  Double yes.  So I joined the board the day a six year new site project came to final presentation and vote.  It is one of the most pivotal decisions the board has ever made for the school...and it was my first day on the job.

Board members serve on two committees.  What will my second committee be, I wondered as I was already on Fundraising as an at-large member.  On Monday I was asked to be on the Finance committee.  At the meeting the following morning, I was asked to be the chair of the committee (which seemed crazy to me initially until I realized it was more of a secretarial position needed to be filled by a board member who could later report to the full board.)  So I took that job.

And today, only one day later, I had a morning-long meeting and I'm now on the Capital Campaign committee, which is rather like the Fundraising committee only with different people raising money for a specific project, in this case our new school building project.

Today I looked at the number of sub-folders I have under my school main email folder.  I found eight separate folders in addition to the ones specific to my children's classrooms.  I think I forgot to mention Welcome Host.  I'm not sure what that is, but I've been given that role for next school year too.

I inherited this problem, that of over-committing and over-volunteering.  My mother and my cousin know it well.  I hope I can keep up with it all.  I'm not sure there's much more I can volunteer for.  At least I hope there isn't...

The Big Boy Update:  The other night he was not asleep.  He was not asleep in the playroom lying on the floor with his blanket over him and two teapots in his hands.  One teapot would pour imaginary tea into the other and then that teapot would pour it back.  This went on for a while, right over his head, without an imaginary drop of tea being spilled.  Also, there were sound effects he added to make it more "realistic."

The Tiny Girl Chronicles:  Yesterday morning she was on the potty and I left her to go to check on my son.  I came back to her at the toilet trying to dump some solids she had deposited into the potty.  Solids that were sticking to the sides of the insert.  She was banging the insert on the rim of the toilet.  I ran in to save the paint on the walls.  But she had done just what she was suppose to do in the potty and was following through with the next step.

Someone Once Said: I don’t hold with the idea that to understand all is to forgive all; you follow that and the first thing you know you’re sentimental over murderers and rapists and kidnappers and forgetting their victims. That’s wrong.