From: elonich@cbnewse.cb.att.com (diane.e.pedersen)
Subject: Re: Common Sense and Participation
Organization: AT&T Bell Labs, Naperville IL
Date: Thu, 7 Jan 1993 19:48:16 GMT
Summary: parents with outside jobs

In article <16B4DBDA0.CREECH@LSTC2VM.stortek.com>, CREECH@LSTC2VM.stortek.com (Teresa Creech) writes:
> In article <19930105101523SASTLS@mvs.sas.com>
> Tamara Shaffer <SASTLS@mvs.sas.com> writes:
>  
> >>in article <208@dpfe.UUCP> David R Huddleston Sr announces:
> >>
> >>I have been involved in EVERY activity each of my 3 children are in.  I
> >>am a Scoutmaster, gymnastics judge, Band parent, School Parent, etc,
> >>etc..  I have seen over the past 13 years, a major lack of concern by
> >>the "professional" parents of today.  Send the kids to daycare,
> >>latchkey, "let's go party - the kids will be fine", etc..  Then the
> >>wonder why in the heck their kids get into trouble.
> >>
>  
>  
> I think that parents who have the dedication, temperment, etc to stay home
> full time with children, be scoutmaters and school aids, and not have
> outside activities are WONDERFUL.  They have a more stressful life than
> I do, they work hard.  They have all my admiration. BUT - I couldn't do it.
> Does this mean that I don't love or want my kids - NO!!!!!  It just means
> that I am different.
>  
> Also, nobody MAKES you be a scoutmaster, etc.  You chose to do this.
> Don't give me grief because I choose to spend the time with my immediate
> family instead of with everyone elses kids.
>  

Contrary to popular belief, there is not a correlation between volunteering
to help children's activities, and working outside of the home.  Most
coaches, scoutmasters, etc. that I know are fathers with outside jobs.
Of the 4 room mothers for my son's 2nd grade class, all 4 of us have
outside jobs.  The den mother doesn't have paid employment, but she
has almost a full-time job's worth of volunteer activities.

A lot of us have the philosophy that we should try to give our fair
share of the volunteer efforts needed to keep kids going in school,
scouts, church, and other outside activities.   So we help out where
possible, be it accompanying a field trip, grading papers, organizing
a craft project, making phone calls, staffing a booth, teaching s
Sunday School class -- if every parent helped a little, we wouldn't
have so many volunteers on the verge of burnout because they're
trying to pick up the slack.

I am grateful to the stay-at-home moms who have helped chauffer my
kid around when I was at work.  I am especially grateful that
flexible hours are a standard (albeit informal) practice in my
workplace so that I can leave work some days to help with Scouts
or my son's school, and not have to formally notify anyone of my
comings-and-goings.  (Flexible hours also allow me the "privilege"
to come into work at 10pm and stay all night to complete my work,
if needed.)

And we need to have a lot of sensitivity as to how other parents
are dividing their volunteer time.   Someone might not volunteer
to help with Scouts because they are busy ccordinating a school
function, or doing their spouse's chores so that the spouse can
coach soccer.  Or someone who is staying at home all the time
might be making phone calls and babysitting other people's kids
so that the other people can do some volunteer work.

But I believe that everyone who has kids in volunteer-supported
activities should try to do what they can to help out.   And with
more and more parents employed outside the home, we also need to
pool our creativity (and change society so that flextime becomes
the norm) if we want to keep these opportunities alive for our kids.


helping with scouts deosn't meean they
-- 
Diane Pedersen
AT&T Bell Laboratories
Naperville, Illinois
att!ihlpe!elonich
Newsgroups: misc.kids