Should mothers step back at work to join the PTA?

As a headmistress says working women must help schools more...

‘ We should be running boardrooms , ’ not tombolas

NO

Fewer women are joining parentteacher associations (PTAs) than 30 years ago, it was reported this week.

Surely, this can’t be a surprise to anyone. Dealing with the demands of a career, kids, housekeeping and modern life leaves most women with about, oh, 30 minutes’ free time each day — and I know I’d rather spend that catching up on Strictly Come Dancing than badgering other parents to man the school cake stall.

The president of the Girls’ Schools Association has the less-than-helpful suggestion that it is all a case of ‘how we manage our resources and time’.

So, to all you exhausted working mums out there, please enjoy that extra dollop of guilt to add to the burden you are already carrying around as you try your best to create a good life for your children.

And, let’s face it, it is us mums, because, despite forming almost half of the UK’s workforce (and generally being paid less than our male colleagues for the privilege), we are the primary carers of our children.

Yet that care is still expected to spill over into volunteering at school, too. I do understand how important it is to create strong communities, and I loved the years my twins spent at their primary school, where I made some fabulous life-long friends. I even negotiated a nine-day fortnight at my job as editor of Marie Claire so that I could do pick-up and drop-off a couple of times a month (and, yes, occasionally man the cake stall).

I did a year as class rep for each of my children and, believe me, that was more than enough. Spending hours sticking raffle tickets on dusty bottles of liqueur for the summer fair and producing leavers’ sweatshirts and yearbooks — only to have the mum who, despite a dozen reminders, didn’t get her pictures in on time moan at me — felt like a completely thankless task.

I don’t know how much it benefited my children, either, to be honest.

So I am full of admiration for those who take it a step further and actually join the PTA, but count me out.

The trouble is that there is so much fundraising to be done nowadays because schools are so poorly resourced. whether it’s a quiz night to raise money for new playground equipment, or a silent auction to buy books the kids can’t learn without, the amount of events to be organised is mind-boggling.

Personally, I’d rather see women leaders in the boardroom and the Houses of Parliament sort out the underlying problems, rather than leaving it to us working mums and the tombola stall.