Some interesting and creative reading over on babble.com. Hate is an awfully strong word, but -- as a parent group leader -- there are days when I can relate to both of these very different perspectives. This writer now hates her PTA after having been a leader.  But this one expected the worst but now loves her PTA (which I actually suspect is a PTO, but that's just a quibble).

And the babble folks even have a snarky poll ("is the PTA an evil cult or a utopian paradise or somewhere in-between?") as a follow-up.  Wait -- they're stealing our schtick! :-)

I can definitely laugh at parent group humor and stereotypes, but I've been to  an awful lot of PTO and PTA meetings, and I've rarely, if ever, met the "Bree" (from Desperate Housewives") character that is so often portrayed as the typical parent group leader. More often, it's regular folks holding on to the safety bar of life with both hands just trying to survive the ride like the rest of us.