An Open Letter to Myself: Just Say No to the PTA

Dear Self,

The kids go back to school next week, and let's face it, that means you do, too.

But it doesn't have to mean that. It could mean freedom and relaxation this year instead of endless PTA projects and class mom responsibilities that never seem to end.

Self - let's do things differently this year.
 

Let's not do what you do every year. Self, do you remember last year? You attended that first day of school meeting for all of the parents, and when the representatives from the PTA stood-up in front of the crowd and explained how imperative parent involvement was... you said yes to everything. And when you over-commit, I over-commit.

And this year I'm not doing it.

 

I'm reminding you what you promised you would remember to do this year:

 

Just Say No to the PTA.

 

We can't take another year of school-wide volunteer coordinating, party planning, fundraising over-drive and over-kill.

 

I will not sit by while you willingly sign-up for another year of agonizing over how to get the remaining three families to contribute their class dues.

Or watch you worry about how to most effectively balance the dietary needs of the lactose-intolerant classmates with those suffering from acute tree nut allergies. And don't forget the needs of the mom who called you before each-and-every party to remind you which foods or child particularly liked, or even more importantly, disliked.

 

I will not suffer through another poorly planned class party that resulted in the misstep of giving twenty-four 3-year-olds noise makers as part of a pretend New Year's Eve party celebration. Nor will I endure the phone calls from other parents who wanted to know what the hell we (you, really) were thinking serving preschoolers mocktails at 10am.

 

And most of all, I will not be here to whisper encouragingly 'You can do it!" as you wonder if you can muster the strength to pick up the phone and beg yet another parent to chaperone the class camping trip.

 

This year, I'll be relaxing on the couch watching Dexter and Modern Family. I'll be taking leisurely baths while reading the latest issue of Us Weekly The New Yorker.

 

This year, I hope you'll join me - and not the PTA.

 

Love,

Self

This post is a republish from last year. I still need the pep talk. Do you also need to be restrained when it comes to volunteering?
 

HP Photosmart All in One Printer from Staples - A Great Photo Printer and More

Remember how a few days ago I was all agog about my new Acer Chromebook? Well, that was just one of the two great products I received from Staples to review.

I also received an HP Photosmart All-in-One Printer.

 

I'll be honest, before I got the printer I told my husband of it's imminent arrival in hopes he would take my passive aggressive comment in the manner in which it was given: my way of telling him I would like him to set-up the printer for us.

"Oh," he said "Another photo printer that won't really work, we definitely need one of those." I laughed nervously, disagreed, and secretly figured he was probably right.

The printer arrived, and with just the slightest of cajoling he said he would give it "five minutes, but that's it." And would you believe, it only took five minutes to get it up and running? And it's wireless so there's no cables or connections to worry about either.

Perhaps even more impressively, I've been able to use the printer since the initial set-up without any problems, and to use it for a lot more then just printing photos.

I've also scanned photos that I've wanted to scan for not just months, but for years. One of the great features of this All in One Printer is that you can send a copy of the scanned photo to either your own computer or your own email -- the second option will ensure these photos I've wanted to scan for forever will also get sent to the people I've wanted to send them to for forever, too.

The front of the printer has a touch screen where you can make your selections, which is easy and intuitive to use. A sample of some of the screens are shown below, and you can see how easy it is to select first "photo, copy or scan." Then, for photos, you can choose the size and it prints right out. For scanning, you can choose if it is a photo or a document. And, you can also choose to send it directly to your computer or to an email address.

Another great feature is you can scan and print directly from a memory card, also shown below.

The quality of the printed photos printed is really amazing -- just as good as one you would get from a traditional photo-printing service -- and it's very easy to get the photos to print the size you expect them to be. It might be just me, but with other photo printers I was always seeming to print my photos in extra-giant size or teeny-tiny size.

So if you are a friend or relative to whom I've promised a photo any time in the past ten (or even twenty) years, expect it to come in the mail with an extra scanned copy via email any day now.

Summer camp photos, you're first!

 

The HP Photosmart 6520 Printer is $149.99 at Staples.com, and as of this writing, currently eligible for $30 instant savings, for a final cost of $119.99.

I received an HP Photosmart 6520 All-in-One Printer from Staples for purpose of review. All opinions are my own.