Anyone want to be a Room Mother?

I signed up to be Jack's room mother this year. I was reluctant to do this because I was unsure about the amount of time I would need to commit to this but mostly because my schedule changes depending on whether I'm in rehearsal or performances. The lady in charge of room mothers assured me that being the Kinder room mother would be easy and I only had to plan for Valentine's Day and Christmas parties. I agreed to be the point person among the room parents. A few weeks ago I got an e-mail saying our first event was Oct 29 for Halloween and it was not to be a party because we don't want to overshadow that night's Trunk or Treat (all the parents decorate their cars, go to school and the kids can trick or treat from car to car in a safe environment.)

People, organizing this non-party has been ridiculous. As kinder parents, it is our first classroom event and we all want to do something special for the kids. This translates to the non-party becoming a party and that is a no-no. Late in our discussions, one of the parents reminded us that we have been asked to keep this from being a party. She was right. We had gotten a bit too big (not a lot too big, but a titch too big)in our planning but I wanted to pull my hair that this person a. hadn't said a word about anything previously and b. waited so long to say anything at all.

I took a breath and thanked her for reminding us about getting out of hand. After thinking it all over I said that I thought we could keep everything we were planning on as long as we kept scale in mind and made our snack, goody bag and craft simple, simple, simple. It just got more complicated from there. Someone suggested not doing the craft, someone else suggested not doing the goody bag, someone else suggested a different snack that would be less like a teat... Most parents had already purchased items and no one wanted to give up what they were contributing to the non-party. I felt like a failure and I finally had to say that I had no idea what to do because I wanted to include everyone. I wanted to abide by the teacher's wishes and I had invested too much emotional energy in a snack for my 5 year old. AND I had to say without being snotty. What I really wanted to say was "JUST DO IT AND KEEP IT SMALL! If you wanted to be the room mother then you should have signed up!!!"