Its the AMANDA show...

So lately a familiar phrase can be heard coming out of my mouth...I'm a one Amanda show. How and why has this happened? For years I was so busy gestating, birthing, feeding, diapering, and playing with babies that life outside my own home just really didn't exist for me. Flash forward, I now have a 4th grader, a 1st grader, a kindergartener, AND a pre k headstart kid.
Each of these schools have a parents committee of some kind. And in my own ways I have been able to actively participate and help out WITHOUT joining the committee OR attending regular meetings OR being an 'elected' officer....why should I change that now? I seriously do help out quite a bit with book fairs, carnivals, being a 'room' mother kinda thing. The 'elected' officers of these committees know that if they call me with enough notice I will do it. In all these years I have only had to say NO once...so I really feel that I give what I can...why can't that be enough?
For over 4 years now I have been a 'paid' volunteer for my community library...under the table pay...I have spent countless hours making the library a better place and doing my absolute best to assist people in any capacity at the library. From teaching people how to use email, to looking up books on specific items, to copying and sending ancestoral information, organizing and managing summer reading program activities, moving the entire library to another room with only a few other volunteers...why can't that be enough??
So this has totally turned into a whine fest...But the point that I really wanted to make is that I do help out, I do my part...I go above and beyond quite often to accomplish tasks asked of me. So now that I'm taking classes and working towards becoming an RN, I need to scale back. The people who have come to depend on me to do so many of these things become hostile when I tell them that I just can't and my priorities are a little different this semester...I have to scale back in order to keep my sanity and my family intact...why should I be given harsh treatment for that?
Bottom line (s)...sometimes it sucks being a reliable person...a little appreciation would be welcome...I'm not Superwoman, her suit would look horrible on me!....I will still help out, but not as much as I have in the past, I'm not totally deserting, just heading in a different direction...