Class Mom Aspirations.

Mommy Tracked

by Wendy Sachs (How Does She Do It?)

Last year when my son Jonah asked me to be the class mom, I responded "but I'm your mom sweetie," I don't need to be the class mom. He was temporarily disappointed, but didn't push the point. This year Jonah was adamant. "Mommy," he announced at the end of August, "you will be the class mom this year…you MUST."

Having your mom as Class Mom when you're in third grade seems to carry elite status. It's like being a hall monitor or on safety patrol, but better because your mom is ALWAYS in the classroom for the smorgasbord of events - events that often involve food.

So midway through last year, Jonah began plotting my move to become his Class Mom - the quintessential Queen Mama School Bee. Maybe he was motivated by first choice cupcakes at the end-of-the-month collective birthday parties or maybe he simply wanted to bask in the glow of my in-class presence, who knows. But the pressure was on and I didn't want to let him down.

So I promised that this year to volunteer as class martyr and throw myself into the minutiae of mind numbing responsibilities like collecting Scholastic book order forms. I am not knocking the importance of the administrative efforts that must happen to make a classroom run smoothly, I just have no interest in doing them. And while I swear I am at the school for pretty much everything - or certainly everything that warrants an in-person visit, the class mom literally is there for EVERYTHING. Things frankly, I've chosen to avoid.

So believing that Jonah would feel more pride in my being his Class Mom than if I were to say win a Nobel Prize for eradicating the Swine Flu, I decided to suck it up and sign up. After all, how much longer will my son actually want to see me in his classroom?

What I didn't realize was that this Class Mom thing had become super competitive.

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Wendy Sachs authors How Does She Do It? on Mommy Tracked. She is an award-winning television producer, former Capitol Hill press secretary and the author of the critically acclaimed book, How She Really Does It: Secrets of Successful Stay-at-Work Moms. Currently, Wendy works as a vice president at a NYC public relations agency where she represents high profile corporate clients and media personalities. She lives in New Jersey with her husband, Michael, and two children, Alexandra and Jonah.