I wish I had an answer...

I went grocery shopping yesterday, I went and I did not complain. Thanks to my trusty blog, I went with a good attitude!! :-)
I was over in the produce section when a lady stopped me and asked if she could ask me a question. I was thinking that I am no produce expert but sure, ask away. She was looking at caramel (pronounced CAR-MEL) apple wraps and asked if I had ever used them. I told her that it might be more work but that I have always used caramel candies, just unwrap, melt, and yummy caramel apples! I was ready to walk away when she started to talk about the cost of caramel and candy is so expensive...ok, I might be here for a while...
Come to find out, this lady is new to the Room Mom scene. She decided to sign up for her daughter's class of 15 and now she was literally freaking out!! She had sent a letter home for parents to please send $5 for the party that they would be having on Friday. Tuesday was the deadline to get all money turned in and as of yesterday, when I saw her at the grocery store, 3 kids had turned in money!! 3 kids?! She was planning pizza, caramel apples, dirt pudding, a little cake, goody bags, drinks, all this fun stuff and now she had $15!! Really people?! I felt sorry for her and told her that maybe she should talk to the teacher to help out, I honestly felt bad for her.
I guess she wasn't aware of the "the room Mom always spends a TON of money to make the parties happen"
But then it got me to thinking? Why does this happen?? How can we change it?? We're all parents...we all want our kids to have fun at school, don't we?....
I don't know, I don't have an answer, I wish I did...
Why does it seem that parental involvement on all levels, at the school, get harder and harder each year...
It really made me sad! :-(