Room Parent Fret

When we last ‘spoke’ I had finished an entire mug of coffee and was lounging in my bed, having successfully repressed my inclination to volunteer as a Room Parent for my daughter’s class.

Well… sometimes, if you’re already known as a ‘Yes Woman’, your hand is forced – especially if you’re close friends include other, perpetually volunteering folks.

Earlier this week, I actually wore an outfit neither made by lululemon nor designed for a workout to attend my final PTA meeting as carnival co-chair.  There was a lovely display of food – most of which went uneaten, naturally – coffee and lovely ‘thank you’ gifts selected by our gracious President.  As is tradition –I would know as this is my third year on this Executive Board – the outgoing officers were seated next to those who would take their jobs the next year.  But, unlike the current Walt Disney World ‘situation’  both outgoing and incoming officers were cheerful with their status.
When it was my turn, I happily introduced myself as the outgoing carnival co-chair and incoming ‘nada’.

All was well – I looked forward to a year of enjoying entire mugs of coffee and of not being seen.  But then, as this happy moment came to a close, my friend – the incoming Head Room Parent – approached… and asked me to be a Room Parent for my younger son’s class.

“Just when I thought I was out, they pull me back in.”  [For those who have not misspent a lot of their lives in front of screens this is a quote from The Godfather, to which  The Sopranos pays homage. ]

Of course, I said ‘yes’. I have No-a-ti-tis, and besides, the requester is a friend.

Le sigh – this same friend says things always sound more dramatic in French.

Le sigh.  Le irony.  Le No-a-ti-tis. Le Room Parent. Le Moi.

I am a Room Parent. I am with my tribe.  And everyone wants to be with our own kind.  Sometimes my tribe is my family, when we laugh so hard that I fart — making us laugh harder – because you never, ever outgrow the empirical fact that farts are funny.   And sometimes, my tribe is fellow über volunteers who can’t resist the lure of uncompensated and under-appreciated labor.