That is what I usually proclaim, anyway. I can get quite haughty about it too. (which is actually another undesirable trait, but whose counting.)
So it was much to my chagrin that as I was musing around last night, in one of those moods where I reflect upon the ways in which I act like a moron, that I recalled the last PTA meeting I was at.
I had volunteered to help with the Thanksgiving Parade, where the school participates in the town parade. No one wanted to do it. I thought, "No big deal, super easy..." and then realized that it was actually going to be a ton of organizing and work. (Not like that should have been a surprise, I had done the same thing last year...)So me and my co-chair got busy. Anyway, time went on...not a lot of parent volunteered...kids who showed up to the workshops were so excited that they couldn't focus...I end up having to re-do everything that was made at the workshops so they wouldn't fall apart...I stayed up way too late too many nights making snowflakes and sewing Christmas tree costumes, synching the carols we recorded, fortifying garbage bag snow men, we temporarily misplace our attendance sheet and people panicked...blah blah blah, in other words, it was not a piece of cake, more like weevily hard tack. BUT once it was done and we were at the parade, and everyone was so happy and people actually showed up to be in it, the judges came along and gave us 1st place for youth. Oh! first place, you say? How vindicating! Actually maybe it wasn't such a pain in the ass after all... Maybe I love making a parade happen...(Amazing what someone telling you that you won and letting you carry a banner will do...)
Yet still, when it came time to brief the PTA about it at the meeting, I opened my mouth and whiiiiined. I remember saying something about the ratio of work by me vs. participation by others being poor, I remember actually saying something along the lines of: "I got better things to do that bust my ass for some PTA thing that no one wants to participate in." I remember some lady across from me raised a single eyebrow and look down at the phone in her lap, where she was no doubt tweeting, "SOMEbody forgot her big girl pants today! And now I have to listen to this bloody whiner!" (What? Hey! those are MY lines!)
So, note to self: When you sign yourself up for something like the PTA, you should already know that you will be avalanched by some kind of ridiculously time consuming task that never ends. Everyone at that table was doing something or other that was claiming their precious free time. And at some point they probably all felt like they were putting in more effort than they were going to receive in rewards. For crying out loud, that's life.
I am making it an early resolution: Say NO to whining.
When my kids whine at me, I just look at them and say, "Excuse me? I don't recognize that as language, please try again."
And I am asking all of you to do that for me. OKaaaaaay? Pluuuuueeeeeeease?
Though if you don't I can always say, "Well, no one made me stop, so it's not my fauuuuuuult!"
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