Taming the paper tiger

I'm not sure when I started hating paperwork. I think I snapped some time in my 30s after the kids arrived and life got complicated. Up until that time, I dutifully and neatly filled out every form that was sent my way and turned it in on time. I was a very Good Grrrl.

Then I became a mother and the paperwork covered my desk faster than ants on a sugar cube. Medical info remains the most in demand: health records for the school nurse, health records for the teacher, health records for the Boy Scouts, health records for the Girl Scouts, health records for gymnastics, health records for soccer, health records for softball, health records for camp, health records for daycare, and of course, health records for the doctors that insist they need to be "updated" every time you cross the threshold into the clinic.

Second to health records are permission slips. Permisson to ride the bus, to ride in the van, to stay after school, to receive a required vaccination, to go home with a friend, to participate in art club, to be in drama club, to join Odyssey of the Mind, to go on a field trip, to access the Internet, to participate in a fundraiser, to sell cookies for the Girl Scouts, to go on a Scout campout, to do the activities planned for the scout campout, to go swimming in a pool, and on and on and on.

Then there's the policy statements to be signed for Internet access, camp, school, and the bus. The forms requesting information on parents, the call for volunteer forms, the school directory forms, and the emergency contact forms.  Let's not forget the annual school registration and application form.

Of course there are forms to buy things too: sweatshirts, t-shirts, tote bags? Scholastic Books? Yearbooks? School pictures? Gift wrap? Poinsettias? Dinner? BBQ? Scout uniforms?

And then there's the tests and report cards to sign and the various other bits and pieces of paperwork that are unloaded from the kids' backpacks every day.

E, who has made a career as a civil servant, is unfazed by paperwork. He doesn't understand my eye-rolling and resentment. At this point in the school year, I've had ENOUGH, and yet I get inundated with more paperwork so the school office can get a jump on next year.

For at least 15 years we've heard about the wonders of electronic data bases and information sharing and the inevitability of a paperless office. I think those are pipe dreams, just like a colony on the moon.

What do you think?

May 9, 2007

Comments

[Tera]

Ugh! Every single flat surface of our home is a paperwork trap. I never know quite where to put it all, and often end up losing it in the hundreds of little piles. Every time we get visitors, I stuff all the little piles in a big box and it joins all the other hundreds of boxes in the guest room...until we need the guest room at which point it heads to the attic. Hmmm, maybe I should check the attic for that form Jari needs for soccer next week, and that report Kaeden needs by Friday, and the taxes Erwin has to have done this month, and..and..
I know just what you mean V!!!

[RD]

I think this is why I read and enjoy your blog--it validates me and confirms that the woes (and joys) of motherhood and womanhood are universal! Don't get me started on paperwork. I drown in it daily. Form after blasted form. And with two end-of-school-year projects due to be displayed tomorrow evening, my dining room table and adjoining counter space are covered. It's a mad rush in our house--and papers are getting in the way. Of life.

[Arabella]

Boy, do I hear you! I never had much patience for paperwork, and, now, as a mom, I have even less. It just builds up so quickly!

I once read a tip from a fellow mom regarding permission slips: apparently, her child's school used the same form every time, so she just wrote in all the unchanging information once, made copies of it, and only filled in the changing information and put a fresh signature on the bottom of the slip for each new trip.

[Lynn]

I HATE paper!! I get tons of it from my kids and I get tons of it from my own school where I teach, as well as all the bills that come in every day.... Things that I've done to help out - sign up for electronic bill pay so I can pay the bill right away and get rid of the paper. A friend who is a teacher has suggested to her school that they choose a differenct color for each grade level, so that parents with more than one child at the school would be able to keep things separate. (so that way, all permission slip forms, progress reports,etc for each grade would be one color). I'm starting to freak out about all the requests for money coming in right now... I don't have enough to spread around!

[mamatulip]

So with you. I try to recycle/shred as much as I can but it gets the best of me. There are piles of paper everywhere and my filing cabinet is exploding.

[littlepurplecow]

I too am drowning in paper. I know it's time to clear the bulletin board when stacks begin to form in this vertical space and I can't find the tacks.

[Nance]

At our school, we have gone to inter-school email for the attendance report and most of our communication. But you'd be surprised at how many teachers and staff still PRINT EVERYTHING OUT, just to have a piece of paper in their hands. It's ridiculous. And not just the "old timers", either.

[Annie]

There is an old Dilbert cartoon where the pointy haired boss asks his secretary to email something, fax a hard copy and make a copy for their files. She replies, "Goodbye paperleess, hello clueless." My husband is in the Navy and they are famous for paperwork in triplicate. I feel your pain.