If you’re a parent with school-age children, the return of the school year brings a barrage of logistics to manage, kid transitional meltdowns to soothe, and new routines to figure out.
And while you can’t completely get rid of the stress that back-to-school seasons bring, you can do things to bring some order to the logistics and protect your breathing space for the emotional curveballs. This way, you’ll get some peace of mind that will allow you to enjoy the rest of your summer.
Here are three things you can do now to get there:
1. Block your work hours now for those first school weeks
We all know those first couple weeks are tricky, so why not start building in breathing space now?
Pull up your work calendar and focus on the first two weeks of the new school year. Block the first 1-1.5 hours of your workdays from meetings now. While you can still plan to work then, not having meetings right away will give you more flexibility as everyone figures out the new routines and as kid emotions flare. It’s a lot less stressful to deal with “I don’t want to go to school” whining at 7:40 a.m. when you don’t have a 9 a.m. meeting that you can’t miss.
Similarly, consider blocking the last 30-60 minutes of your workday from meetings during those first few weeks. You might discover that you need to leave work earlier than you thought to make it to pick-up on time, which you now have the flexibility to do. Additionally, that non-meeting work time will let you close loops on certain issues so you can be present with kids to hear about those first days back.
If you’ve already scheduled certain meetings in those windows, see if you can move them to another time of day. It’s a lot easier to do so now than trying to do it the week of. Future you will really appreciate it.
2. Dig into that school calendar (and go beyond just calendaring events)
Schedule an hour in the next week to comb through the school calendar for the year. During that time, block your work schedule for any school half days or days off. You can always open them up later if you get other childcare coverage—but better to play it safe for now.
Additionally, for any listed event (e.g., picture day), think through the little steps you’ll want to take. For example, for picture day, set a calendar reminder the night before to bathe your kids and a reminder in the morning to do anything else you might need for picture day. If you have to find a sitter for any event (e.g., back-to-school night), schedule time when you’ll reach out to sitters.
Don’t expect your brain to automatically remember this stuff in time. Instead, let your calendar carry that mental load.
3. Protect your time and create a game plan for back-to-school shopping
Think through each bucket of back-to-school shopping you may need to do. That might mean new clothes, school supplies, as well as any athletic or extracurricular gear you’ll need. Don’t forget any school lunch and/or after-school snack options you might need to stock up on.
After that, calendar when you’ll do each. You might discover, for example, that you want to take the Friday before school starts off from work to have time to get it all done. You can also take this time to take care of school paperwork you have to complete.
Doing this not only helps you avoid last-minute scrambles, but can alleviate a lot of stress. You know that you have time protected to do the shopping, so you can let it go until then.
Too often, we juggle all of this in our heads (along with normal home and work logistics) and then get mad at ourselves as we scramble to do the things we understandably forgot. By taking time to plot these things out in your calendar, you can get back to enjoying the rest of your summer with the confidence that you’ll be in good shape for the upcoming school year.
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