I noticed a difference in PTA dynamics when we moved up here. In PA, the meetings were daytime, with a nod to working parents in the form of an evening meeting once or twice a year. Which, you know, some people work at night, too, and don't necessarily want to jog over to school at the end of a long day. Meaning, most of the PTA was women who had the time to be at school all the time, i.e. women who didn't have to work.

Here, all of the PTA meetings are in the evening; the majority of parents work, and the PTA is still fairly active, if small. This school, for all its many and varied faults (mostly academic) manages to coordinate just as many functions for the kids as the school in PA did.

It's one of those realities. I clearly remember dealing with some push-back when I tried to explain to the PA PTA that I worked part-time in NY, but I would help when I could. Maybe push-back is the wrong word, but there was a sense that I was some exotic, not quite of-us creature -- not at home and doing the gym and the spa, but not a doctor or a lawyer or someone with a real "career" either.