I am room mom for my daughter's class. There is very little parent participation. I send out flyers that no one takes the time to respond to, but suookues do get delivered to class. I never get a response that parents are willing to help, but some parents do show up to help. It is very difficult to manage.

I did have a Christmas party for the class. No one called saying that they would be there to help. There is 1 mom who will show unannounced and so far it has been fine. She helps for a little bit and then leaves. I understand that she is trying to split her time between 2 kids classrooms. Which I comend. I have just 1 child and it's hard. However... we started our Christmas party about 10 minutes earlier than the posted time. This mom was 20 min. late. She belittled me in fgront of the class and asked why we started early. When I said the morning went by faster than expected and the kids were ancy, she informed me very rudely that she did not appreciate my lack of communication one bit. She huffed and puffed around the classroom and brought the teacher to tears (this is her 2nd year teaching). The teacher was so upset, she talked to the principal about it who came over and apologized to me.

It was not our intention to upset anybody. I did not even know this mom was coming. There was a whole afternoon of crafts planned. She missed 20 minutes of waffles.
That evening, the kids had their Christmas musical. She stared me down and made me uncomfortable for the 30 min. before the show started and was loud enough to tell another mom that she did not like my cattiness (?).

We are at a VERY small school. This mom has her claws out and I am pretty quiet and reserved. I do not like confrontation and get very tongue tied. I know she is going to be waiting Monday morning to pounce on me. I don't thnk I have anything to be sorry for. I apologize if she missed anything, but the day was about the kids. Not the parents. I was trying to make it fun for them. I don't think I should have to defend myself, but I don't want her to think she can walk all over me either. I don't want to have hard feelings as we will not be able to avoid one another.

Any suggestions?