How Many Messages from Your Kid’s School is TOO Many?

It almost seems like my teenager’s school is TRYING to get parents to block them.

I AM interested in what’s going on at my child’s school. But this AVALANCHE of voicemail is just too much.

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Every day I get a least one phone call. Some days it might be three or even five. The calls come at all times, day and night. Calls from school come on Sunday.

SUNDAY!!

Also, I never get just one message. I don’t know if this is an oversight or if it’s just how they do it, but I get DUPLICATES on every single message.

Here’s the kicker, though: none of these messages are ever important. Maybe it’s a change to the menu. Maybe it’s about a club or extra-curricular activity that my kid ISN’T EVEN INVOLVED with.  Today, I got four about college counselor’s day on campus for seniors. My kid is a sophomore so this doesn’t even apply to her. Why? Why SO…MANY…FREAKING…NOTIFICATIONS?

Did I mention, these are calls to my cell phone? Not a discrete text or e-mail. A PHONE call. I feel like I’m a victim of telemarketers, but it’s school letting me know that “Thursday is Dress Like Soccer Moms and Bar-b-que Dad’s Day”.  Enough, already.

What happened to send a note home with your kid (but only when it’s actually URGENT)??

I didn’t sign up for this. Literally, I just started getting this deluge of needless calls the week before school started. I suspect my daughter’s mother, who’s always been savvier about this kind of stuff, gave them MY number because she already knew how excessive the school was about this. I don’t blame her; if I could pawn it off on someone else, I would.

I can hear it now: “Don’t you CARE about your child’s education??”

I DO care. Again, I get a dozen or more of these a week.  Again, NONE of them are “urgent” or even “pertinent”.

I asked listeners this morning, “Would I be the A-Hole if I BLOCKED my kid’s school”? A couple of callers, including one teacher, told me, yes, that would make me an a-hole. An unconcerned, disconnected parental a-hole.

But a half-dozen calls said I’m NOT. And, all of those callers also expressed frustration or, at least, annoyance at the bulk of unimportant calls, texts, and e-mails they get from the schools.

And, to prove that it’s not JUST me being a grouch, here’s an op-ed that ran this school year in the Wall Street Journal.

To be fair, I AM pretty grouchy. But on this, I’m not alone.