Why do you hate the PTA?

[Rororo1]

I am part of a group of parents who are in the process of setting up a PTA at our primary school. When I mentioned this to a friend, she went on a long rant about how she dislikes the PTA at her child's school, and I feel like hating on the PTA is a common thing.

If you dislike your schools PTA, please can you tell me why? So we can try to avoid doing whatever it is that seems to make PTA groups so unlikeable 😅

Also please vote:

You are being unreasonable - I have no hard feelings towards the PTA at my child's school

You are not being unreasonable - I have negative feelings towards our PTA

Because they don’t communicate. They make annoying decisions without ever sense checking with the rest of the parents around what they’d want, both in terms of fundraising ideas and spending.

Im sick of bake sales and ice cream vans - I want my kids to have teeth by the end of primary school!

The PTA should have a financial report that is audited annually and presented at a yearly Annual General Meeting anyway.

I think I feel the same way I do about the PTA as those three hour work meetings that could have been an email.

If the school really needs a fundraising thing, the school could send a good email out asking for donations and setting out clearly how the money will be used. The kids come in with £1 or whatever it is and it goes straight towards the thing. I know that means parents and kids would miss out on a PTA disco or a school fete, but really.. would anybody be that bothered?

@Bushmillsbabe many schools don't actually use the term "PTA" officially. They are registered charities known as "Friends of School Name".
The problem is many parents don't really understand what "Friends of" is so they get referred to as the "PTA" to make it easier.
@FKAT I don't think it's a USA term. It was in use (in England at least) when I was at Primary back in the 80s.
My school called it the PTA. The Catholic school next door called their the PTFA (F for Friends).

@PuppyMonkey I think the children would be "bothered" if there wasn't a disco or school fete.
Not all children enjoy them but the vast majority do.

How do you know no-one wants it. Have u asked em all?

Yes, let's not give children social events or fun. Let's just send them in with £1 and explain it's to buy 0.1% of a whiteboard.

100% this for me too.

The forum for getting involved in decisions is go to committee meetings

I never had a single school disco at my primary school and yet I still look back with fondness on what I consider to be a very happy childhood.

Perhaps they’ll put it on my gravestone - “had a happy life but could’ve done with a few more school discos”…

Never ever? Not even secondary?
That's quite unusual.
I mean back in my ancient days of primary school (1980s) it was a teacher in the corner with a record player and we mostly ran around the hall.....

The favouritism - towards the other parents on it and mostly the children of those on it.

Omg this, I spent £5 on biscuits for the raffle then had to buy raffle tickets for £5!!!

Why on earth did you spend £5 on biscuits??
That was your choice.

If they can afford to piss money away on ipads, they have enough funding.

I really do not like tablets being used in primary schools.

Yeah we had them at secondary right enough. Never at primary though.

When I was in primary, it was well known that having a mum in the PTA made you a favourite for everything. The odds were always stacked against those of us whose mums weren’t in the PTA and the PTA offspring got picked for every award, special honour, main parts in the nativity, teachers always went on their side with any playground fights etc.

These days most teachers have no idea which parents are involved with the PTA.

To be honest when I say "disco" for primary school it really was "lets go bumble around to some music in the hall for a bit and have a cup of orange squash as a treat".
They weren't really that intense 😂

🙄

Yep. She's also saying pta mums are typically high career, their kids benefit from networking 😂 this is exactly the type of clueless overzealous patronising helicopter parent who looks down on others you find in some of these. Would love to send kids to private for the "network" but couldn't afford it so finds this is the solution. The role attracts these types. You know what, I'd love a study on how the children of these personality types turn out 🤣 Then another poster says up somewhere that of course pta kids aren't expected to be treated better. Direct contrast to the above post and posters who say thats their experience.

Yes, I don’t feel like this about the PTA in my kids’ school who all seem sound tbf.

Ask for five volunteers gets four i join in for the fifth they continue to ask for another person the friend who usually joins in cant help much but they say come along anyway im not invited to the WhatsApp group to coordinate tasks

Ask for help setting up the fair I join in helping set up offer a couple of suggestions only to be continually told we dont do things like that or we tried that before and it didn't work so I stopped after couple of tries I did notice however that my idea was used but only when it was suggested by a friend of the head of PTA I took a tablet with netflix programs downloaded for my son to watch he shared it with the other children few glares about that huge amount of Facebook public thanks my name and a couple of others noticeably absent all her friends even one that hadn't been there were thanked for moral support one person was thanked for trying to make it (she didn't make it) someone commented thanks to cat for the kids entertainment pta head replied good job someone can afford netflix (she fucking has netflix)

Didn't bother again it was such a solo effort she runs around "doing everything" complained no-one helps but your made to feel unwelcome if you do help or your left to the side she would say can someone carry this bag to that stall I step forward nono its ok they know how I like it done its a bag of paper plates not complex equations

Not a fun time