My sister-in-law is pregnant. She and my brother found out the sex of the baby, but were waiting to surprise everyone. Then her mother stepped in.

I grew up in a tiny town with an underfunded, outdated elementary school. It was actually pretty decent, but our playground was absolute garbage. It was all metal and unusable when the sun was out and it was more than 60F.

The school had been raising money for "facility improvements" for years. They had told people that the playground would be amongst the first things to be improved, but when it came time to make word into action they spent the money painting the school and landscaping instead.

Now the school was ugly as fuck and the paint and landscaping were definitely needed, but little kids don't give a shit about that crap. Little kids want a playground they can actually use far more than they want a "pretty" school. My mom was pissed.

So she got permission from the district to do her own fundraising (in the form of monthly bingo nights and a yearly carnival) specifically for the playground. All the people that were involved in the original fundraising wanted to be involved in this one. She stonewalled them completely and hardly let them do anything more than setting up tables and cashiering. Even the principal was miffed with her but didn't actively thwart her because how awful would it look if a principal was actively fighting attempts to better the lives of schoolchildren?

The bingo nights and carnival were awesome and raised a ton of money, gaining popularity quickly. We moved before the project was completed, but within a year after we left they had enough money and got their playground. In the years after we left the PTA moms she dethroned spread vicious rumors about where we were and why we moved, but it didn't matter to her. Kids got their playground and she started a couple ridiculously successful fundraising programs that are still active today.

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