The Overachieving Parent

Ha Ha

Bet you thought this was going to be a post about me, didn't you?

But it isn't.

Roman had a Valentine's Party today for his homeschool Kindergarten class. 2 weeks ago the teacher had set out a signup sheet for party items.

There were things like Valentines stickers, sprinkles for cookies, Valentines plates, napkins etc. Then there were was the big ticket item: Large cut-out heart cookies for 11 children- so that they could decorate them at the party.

And of course, all of the parents were signing up for the glitter, the sprinkles. All the stuff that requires no more attention than a trip to the store.

I looked at the list and the over-achiever parent in me (or at least the person that has had to be the one trying to get people to pitch in for events) felt compelled to sign up for the cookies.

But I didn't, resolving to come back at the end of class and sign up for them if no one else did. After all, maybe an under-achiever parent would decide that it was their time to step up. I didn't want to stand in their way.

So after class I came back and saw that someone had signed up for the cookies.

Of course it wasn't an under-achiever parent trying to jump into an over-achiever role, instead, it was:

The Ultra Over-Achiever Parent.

Well, not really- this is the woman that is so nice and helpful and would never dream of leaving an item like that for the teacher to handle. After all, her son is in the class, so if cookies they need, cookies she will make.

She doesn't do it for the glory. There is no glory in making a bunch of cookies for a bunch of Kindergartens and then anonymously dropping them off.

She does it for the teacher and the kids.

This woman also has 4 kids, teaches the 2 days at the co-op and works a 40 hour work week besides. She and her husband also homeschool their children.

So when I came back to the list, I felt bad.

I signed up for popcorn.

And I popped it myself.

Well, Noah did, anyway.

I talked to the cookie making mom at class this morning. She was fretting about the cookies because she had made normal ones, and then remembered that one little girl in the class is allergic to eggs. So she found a special eggless recipe and made the little girl her own special cookie- she was fretting because she was afraid she had messed up the recipe.

Wow.

And that is why I say she is not just an Overachieving parent, she is a woman who cares about people- even if that means going the extra mile.