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February 12, 2014

Saying Yes to the right things, and No to the wrong things.

I over-volunteer. Everyone knows all they have to do is ask and I say 'yes'.

Whether it be for work, parent association, school council, fundraisers, helping friends with their kids, running an errand for someone, or any other personal issue someone needs help with, I am there. I don't say 'no'. It can sometimes be a fault of mine as I do spread myself too thin. During a busy time, my brain can go for weeks without shutting off at night, all night.

I sometimes say yes to the wrong things, and no the right things. I tend to not volunteer for the things that I know would be easy, and try to help fix events that are either a problem someone has created, or are impossible to be fixed.

Tonight I re-volunteered myself for a school function that I helped with 2 years ago. Last year I was enjoying being a 'new' mom again and cut back my volunteering for the school year. Then it started full swing again in August of last year for this 13-14 school year.  I am already done with the required volunteers hours I need to fufill at the school so why would I volunteer to do more?! It was brought up that help was needed with the fundraiser again and I volunteered to help, as much as I could. I'll squeeze it in, and I'm so excited!

It's been a long time since I've felt this excited to help, so maybe I haven't been volunteering for the right things. After helping run a large fundraiser in the fall I have become disenchanted with the idea of volunteering because of the people with bad attitudes and excuses, those with personal agendas, and the parents who have forgotten what our purpose is at our children's school. I just can't deal with people and my views are changing ever so slightly. Why am I excited to help with one event while losing complete motivation in another? I know they are equally important but the volunteers 'in charge' are taking the fun and excitement out of it. The people who are 'running' the events have forgotten our purpose It is hard to give up my time only to feel like I'm working on group goal alone. There is gossiping, name calling, disrespectful things being said about school staff, and other parents; just plain rudeness. This sense of entitlement and false importance is going to ruin things that good people want to help with.

What to do, what to do. I have said yes to helping with a couple great people the past few months, and unfortunately said yes to helping with some selfish, self-important, just-plain-mean, immature people. I think it's time to remember who I am volunteering for and who I am not.

Time to say yes to the right things and no to the wrong.

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