I am an idiot.

This school year I have agreed to set aside my sanity and be the treasurer for my children's school PTO.  This is not a small commitment.  The PTO raises and spends thousands of dollars each year.  And I have had some issues with how some things are done.  But I decided that things would only be changed if someone stepped up and worked from within to make it better.  And I have control issues, so who better to get in there and do that??  Why, yes, I am raising my hand for that job because I have control issues.  And I'm an idiot.

This new commitment is my own fault.  When we first were attending our church, I saw some things I didn't like about the children's program.  The choirs were not age appropriate.  They ran too late for the littles.  And they sang completely inappropriate songs for them too.  

If you didn't know this, 3 and 4 year olds do not like to sing praise choruses, as a rule.  They want to use their whole body to sing.  Jumping is required.  But the littles in the one choir were singing praise choruses all the time.  And they were bored.  It was hard for me to watch.  

I can remember singing in a little choir that my mom directed at my church.  We sang the song from "It's a Small World" which is a surprisingly appropriate song for church.  And also is surprisingly appropriate for littles.

This was not happening at our church.  The littles were standing at the front of the church, dwarfed by the big kids and staring into space.  No jumping.  No cute antics.  Just the parents (ME) cringing at their glazed eyes and penchant for knocking over very expensive microphones.

So when I was asked to direct the choir because the former director had a new commitment that meant she couldn't continue, I jumped at the chance.  And I immediately started a second and third choir for the littles.  Now there is a teeny choir.  They mostly do a few actions as the leader strums her guitar.  But they are learning rhythm and look so stinking cute not really singing in front of the church a couple of times a year.

We also have a middle choir.  These guys go to school but learn the church basics of Father Abraham and Deep and Wide.  And no those are not porn movie titles.  If you have spent any time with children at a church, you may have heard them.

And we have the Jr. choir that I direct.  We sing more contemporary praise choruses and some fun, silly songs like, "I Think I'm Going To Throw Up" and "I Just Want To Be A Sheep."  And we do two musicals a year.  TWO!  

All of these things are not small amounts of work.  I talk to the other directors and ask their kids to do cameos in the big kids musicals.  I make sure they can sing in front of the church a few times during the school year and I talk to our sound guys and musicians to make sure all of this goes smoothly.  And I choose the musicals, assign parts to the people most likely to learn them, help with sets and costumes, create power points of each song and all the spoken parts so that the kids have a performance crutch, and direct the large dress rehearsals before the programs.  And we practice every Wednesday night for about 30 minutes.  

The time commitment is about 50 hours a semester.  And now I am adding PTO treasurer.  I am truly an idiot.  This whole Stay-At-Home-Mom gig is turning into a Rarely-At-Home-Mom gig.

How does your school schedule shape up?  I know many other folks have more commitments than this.  Some folks do all this sort of stuff and have a job as well.  Tell me!  Vent away!  Overcommitted Moms Unite!