Harper Valley PTA

I went to my first PTA meeting tonight, and ever since I've had the song "Harper Valley PTA" running through my head. It's not an all together unpleasant song, but it's getting a little annoying. Anyhow, I'm now an official suburban PTA mom. I already signed up to help with "back to school night" and to possibly be a room mother (although they aren't called "room mothers" anymore - they're now called "class coordinators"). My friend Lucy is VP of the PTA, so I have a feeling by default I'm going to be very involved in PTA. I suppose that's OK, I just hope it doesn't interfere with my blogging;)

In other news, we had some excitement at swimming lessons today. Ethan and his friend Brooke are in this class along with 4 other kids from the same family. To make a long story short, today was the first time this session they ventured to the "big pool". I really like Ethan's teacher. He is the perfect fit for Ethan - he's great with the kids but pushes them just enough. He doesn't put up with crying and whining, and will basically push them in if they won't jump. Now, this may seem cruel, but he says he won't put them in the big pool until he's sure they can swim back to the side. This worked well in the first session - all of the parents were very supportive of his teaching style and we were all there cheering the kids on once they made it into the big pool. Well, apparently the mom of the siblings in Ethan's class isn't into pushing her kids. As soon as she saw Marshall (the teacher) putting her son into the pool against his will she waddled her pregnant self (yes - child #5) over and started cussing and yelling at him right in front of the kids. It went something like this "Why in the h*## are you forcing them to do s*%t they don't want to do? I tell them not to go into the deep water at the lake and you are forcing them. I want a refund. We're not coming back." Being the diplomatic sort, I tried to explain that Ethan didn't like it at first, but now he's jumping off the diving board and loving it. She informed me "she didn't need my opinion on her kids". I beg to differ, but I was kind of afraid she might tackle me, so I didn't offer any other opinions. I do however have a feeling Brooke and Ethan will be having their own private swimming lessons the rest of the session!