I'll admit it. Sometimes, OK, quite often, I'm a guilt-ridden mother. I feel guilty about not spending enough time with my daughters, but then I worry that I don't spend enough time focusing on work. I feel guilty that my 5-year-old will be upset when I don't make every school field trip, but then I feel guilty about looking like the slacker mom employee who is always leaving early or asking off to attend a school function.
This Mommy Track'd article, Mommy Will You Be There?", really hit home for me as my 5-year-old just wrapped up kindergarten with more field trips, school functions, and permission slips crammed into the month of May than I could mentally process. I work 32 hours a week and my husband runs a small business, but we both made sure we cleared our calendars and charged up the digital camera batteries for the kindergarten awards ceremony. On the flip side, I missed the school wide Field Day and her classroom May field trip. However, I typically volunteer in her classroom every Friday and stay for lunch, so I didn't feel too guilty. Really.
So, how do you make time for school functions and volunteering at your child's school? I was fortunate enough to be able to volunteer in the classroom, but my daughter's teacher would sometimes send home volunteer work, such as stapling worksheets and assembling packets, to parents who were unable to actually come in to the school. I thought this was a great way for working parents with inflexible schedules to stay involved.
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DH and I work completely different schedules, so this allows at least one of us to attend most functions. At least the ones DS remembers to tell us about, but that's a whole different story!
Also, I have been w/ my company for 11 yrs and they are pretty flexible w/ time out as long as I give them notice. This is soooo important as DS has an IEP and the meetings are never at a great time.
I, too, work, although I work part time. My boss is very sweet and willingly gives us time off for functions. I try to volunteer once a week. I am very lucky because my mom, who is retired is very involved in my daughter's class and volunteers two or three days a week in her class.
If I cannot make it to a function for whatever reason, my mom takes tons of pictures for me.
As a teacher I think it's great when a parent contributes whatever works for them. I've often sent stuff home with parents that aren't able to come into school. I can see how that is especially easy on moms with little ones at home.