Hi.
I'm Laura Vanderkamp. I'm a mother of five, an author, journalist, and speaker.
And I'm Sarah hart Hunger, a mother of three, practicing physician, writer and course creator. We are two working parents who love our careers and our families.
Welcome to best of both worlds. Here we talk about how real women manage work, family, and time for fun. From figuring out childcare to mapping out long term career goals. We want you to get the most out of life.
Welcome to best of both worlds. This is Laura.
This episode is airing in mid August of twenty twenty four. This is our annual back to school episode. I believe we've called it several things, Sarah, how are we over the past seven years?
What is it?
Back to school Extravaganza, Bonanza? What else did we do back?
And it does look like we've done a back to school episode every year for several before Extravaganza and Bonanza, it was like back to School COVID and then back to School COVID two point zero or something like that. And we did do one in twenty nineteen as well, but I didn't see what that one was called. I wouldn't be surprised if we recycled Bonanza and Extravaganza, because I don't remember going back to look in previous years.
Yeah, at least it wasn't like back to school Palooza or something.
I think we've tried that as.
We saved that for Planner Paluza. Planner Paluza.
Yes, well you know it's uh, you do this for many years, so we have a upcoming anniversary episode. You do kind of run through the same titles over and over and some of the same topics. But back to school is always an exciting time, and for families with school age children, it is going to affect all your household rhythms, schedules. Many people have to completely rework their
schedules at this point. For get kids various places. People who have jobs that either are flexible where they're changing some of their hours around to accommodate the school schedules and activities, or people who don't have a whole lot of job flexibility need to figure out how that will all work as well. So it's a big topic and certainly is for us as well. So Sarah, there is a little bit of difference though of when people go to school, When people do go back to school. For me,
this is like what it's back to school? When do you guys start?
I know, this is a difficult one because I feel like there's this pressure to get your back to school content out because some people are very excited to listen to it in early August because their kids are headed back to school early, and mine are in that group. We're not in like the earliest wave. But this year, our local public actually starts August twelfth, which for South
Florida is actually quite early. Usually when we're like mid August, and my kids go back somewhere between that and then the week after, depending on the school in the scenario as we will discuss. So we're on the pretty early side, although not the earliest. My dear friend Kelsey, who podcasts at Girl Nextdoor podcast, her kids go to a public school in Arizona, and I believe it starts in late July.
Oh my goodness. So they win, they win. We just keep moving it back and back and back.
Next thing, you know, summer break is starting in a April or something. I just forget the whole spring break concept.
I don't know.
I think they do end early, and they may have a little bit more of a year round kind of structure, which is also another school configuration neither Laura nor I have personal experience with, but is definitely a thing in some reasons. And so for you guys, back to school could almost be anytime. Yeah, it could be anytime this UD we could keep running this episode year round.
Yeah. No, we start September three this year, which is actually a relatively.
Early start for us.
I'm going to say, because Labor Day happens to be about as early as Labor Day can be this year, So it's always the Tuesday after Labor Day, unless we have a configuration of the major Jewish holidays that bump up against early September, in which case we have gone back after the start of Rashashana. So that has pushed it more to know September eight or nine if it's been early. But the holidays are later this year, so Rashashana is in early October, so that doesn't.
Put our start any different. But I feel like you love when it's late, am I correct? I do.
It's just like bonus time because obviously we've had full time childcare, we have a full time nanny, so it's not that we're scrambling for coverage for that last time, and I find that having time into September often allows us to take some sort of late summer vacation at a time that is maybe not quite as full in a lot of places, because many people, as you mentioned, are going back to school in August twelfth or something like that, and so I don't know, I like the
idea of still being on summer break into September. We've got some plans for that this share, which we'll talk about in future episodes.
I'm sure.
But yeah, it's nine to three this year, Henry is I think a day or two later. But yeah, we're headed into it, and for better or for worse, school schedules will impact our routines. So we're going to discuss all aspects of this topic in this episode, and hopefully, even if this is not your first back to school round with us, or you're back to school round in general, you'll think of something that will help you make this transition a little bit more calm and smooth.
I mean, truthfully, I think one of the reasons this is such a perennial topic is because every year is different, especially so if you have multiple kids. Because it increases the likelihood that some going to be having a big change in any given year. If you've got four different kids, probably someone is moving from elementary to middle, or middle to high or whatever. And so I do often feel to some extent like I am starting from scratch every time.
Obviously this is not our first rodeo, but every combination is new for us. And every year I start to feel like, oh, how weird I don't have a kid in XYZ young child grade. And yeah, newsflash to self, like that's not going to stop.
Well, Sara, why don't you talk about your current configuration because you have some new stuff going on for your family this year?
Yeah, I mean don't we all? So for this year, we have a first grader, a fifth grader, and a seventh grader, and I do feel like not having a kindergarten preschool child, and at our school, what is known as early childhood is going to feel quite different. In the Monosaur system, there's one classroom for children ages three to six, which is like pre K three through kindergarten.
They're actually all together, and so Genevieve's actually been in the same classroom since I actually think she moved up in twenty twenty, right before we all left school. I think it was like January twenty twenty she got to this new classroom. Then obviously we had a few months off, but we did restart that fall, and she's been in that classroom ever since. That's a really really long time.
It hasn't been the same teacher the whole time, but it was the same teacher for two years and then another teacher for two years, and so this is going to be probably like one of the biggest, most seismic shifts we've had in a while, so that's exciting. Her new class will be grades one through three altogether, that's
called Lower Elementary. Cameron is in fifth. He really doesn't He's like the only kid who like this is kind of like business as usual, same classroom, same teacher, kind of happy to have somebody that's on autopilot to some extent. And then Annabelle is actually going to a brand new school, which was a decision we made last spring for a few different reasons, and so that is going to have its own set of logistical challenges, just general feelings of newness,
and we're really looking forward to it. I think her new school looks very promising and awesome, but obviously that's going to be an adjustment for all of us. We actually haven't really had a new school in the mix for a while either.
Now, how far is that school from your other school?
Well, luckily enough, they're actually very close together, so they're about there. Will I mean like nine to ten minute drive apart. We'll see what that looks like on actual school days. And geographically it works fairly well in that from her drop off to the other kids school drop off to my work is kind of one linear path, so I think it will work out okay, but ask me in a few weeks.
Yeah, yeah, no, I was just saying like two drop offs though. I mean, my experience of car lines is they don't always move at the speed one might wish that they would move at.
I agree. I'm these are not huge schools, either of them. I have lots of experiences, obviously with the drop off situation in the school where they've been, which is quite streamlined. A lot of times, the best thing to do is avoid the car line because it's a tiny campus and you just park, walk your kid in and get out
of there. So at least one out of two is a known and fairly easy commodity, And I mean the other one is it's not a thousand kids or anything like that that are going to be in the middle school drop off line, so I hope it's decent.
Yeah, yeah, Okay, Well let's fingers crossed for that. Well, let's take a quick ad break and then we'll come back with more on back to school.
All right, Well, you heard a lot about my scenario for this year. Laura, You, as usual, have a lot of moving parts. Can you tell our listeners where you guys are all going to be?
Yeah, well, we actually only have one child shifting this year. We still have four schools for five kids, but the configuration of who is at which school just changes slightly. But we are not introducing any new schools or anything like that, which is kind of fun, so some continuity. Jasper is going to be in twelfth grade this fall. Sam is going to be in ninth grade, so he
will be joining him at the high school. Ruth is going to be in seventh grade, Alex will be in fourth grade, and Henry will be doing his last year of preschool. So it is still a lot of different schools, but the big change for us is that, well, we're doing drop off discussion later, but all our schools start times changed because, as longtime listeners know, we've covered this topic, there's been some considerable research that having high schools start
ridiculously early in the morning does nobody any favors. I mean, it may be more convenient for the adults who work there, but for the children who are adolescents, the way their bodies work, it's very hard for them to be up and moving. And so there's some reasonable evidence that kids do better in school, they have higher graduation rates, there's fewer disciplinary issues and all that if high school starts
a little bit later. So our district adopted that, but of course that changes everything in terms of the buses and the times that the other schools have to start, and so yeah, we'll be having.
To deal with that.
But the last year of preschool thing is kind of fun because we've had a kid at this particular preschool since twenty eleven with only one year off.
Wow, So it's an end of an era for sure.
For sure, they're going to really miss you guys. That's so sad.
It is a little sad.
I was doing the paperwork for Henry's like setting in all the medical forms and whatever else, the textbook form you have to sign so that the state can provide textbooks to private schools and whatever else, and it was just like, this is the last time I'm signing this form.
Wow, end of an era. Indeed, Well, I'm excited that we'll have a lot to talk about in next year's episode. Maybe you'll be crying while we recorded. I don't know, so since you are, we're not going to devote the entire episode to this, but I'm sure we have listeners with kids in a similar age bracket, And I'm just wondering how you're feeling staring down having a senior, and I don't know, like whether you've already started thinking about
that and how you're supporting him. We're not going to talk about the college process in detail today because spoiler alert, we have an episode coming up that will be on that topic. But I don't know, give us a little teaser of what that's been like or what you anticipate.
Yeah, I mean, well, I'm just playing a supportive role because my son, Jasper is close to being an adult and needs to do his own. You know, the college application process is kind of your first big adult thing that you are doing. I can tell you that it's
different from when we are apply to me. For one thing, it's all digital, which is not surprising, but that changed at some point between when you and I went to school and now that the kids these days are applying, the common application is a much bigger thing now, like the number of places that take it, either as is or with a small supplemental individual application process. The common
app opens like August first. We're recording this right at the beginning of August, and so today he's getting together with a friend to go through and manage their common app stuff, to gather checking how each of them are doing it.
And I happen to know he's.
Got everything mostly put together, accept the teacher recommendations which he put in his requests for and all that. Obviously they probably weren't doing all of it in August, so he may have to wait till the start of the school year to collect those. But yeah, I mean, I am excited for him. As a practical matter, one of our state universities has rolling in missions, and so he's just going to get his application into that as soon as possible, hopefully get a decision within a few weeks
of that submission. Fingers crossed that would work out. But then that will just make senior year a lot less tense in the sense that he is welcome to apply anywhere else that he wishes to.
But having that.
Hopeful admission in hand will mean that whatever else happens, we have a good option. And that is great because I think senior year winds up getting consumed often by this whole college thing, and it's still a wonderful year and it's own right that shouldn't be written off.
So that's my take.
That is so true, and I like that the idea of taking the heat off that first admission. I still remember, like my first med school admission, my first It's true because you're like, okay, all right, Like whatever else happens, we're good. Like that's it's very important, and that would be wonderful for him. So rooting for that to work out, all right, Well, we're going to dive into drop off
and pick up. I know this sounds dry, and yet I feel like when I listen to other people's logistical discussions, I often get ideas or I'll be like, oh, you can do that, and so we're going to go there. I guess, do you want to go first?
Yeah, you can go, you can go. I'm men go.
Okay, Well, mine's less exciting because you have some drivers and I do not. So I will just note that we plan on Josh and I doing the bulk of the morning driving. I will likely drive on the days that I have clinical patients because I do believe that I can get there. I mean, it's just a good location for me to be able to drop off both kids on my way, and I'd rather have those child care hours for later since my kids are doing so many evening activities. I actually think our nanny may prefer
this as well. I think she's gotten used to not coming in super early. I make her extra coffee.
When she does.
But the schedule works for her as well. And so that'll be three to four days of me driving and one to two days of Josh driving. He's a little bit more flexible one day of the week, and we'll see if we can make it work. Probably on a rare occasion, if both of us are early er, one of us is out of town or something like that, then she would step in, come in a little bit earlier and then the afternoon will generally be her picking up similar to the drop off, it'll kind of be
going from one school to another. And the only challenge that I see here is that I think our mornings are going to have to start significantly earlier than they did last year. We could get away with leaving at seven to forty five last year and kind of be okay. It actually wasn't ideal for me from a work perspective, like I'd be kind of like right on the borderline of like my first patient's already roomed and I'm rushing
in there, and I don't love that. I like to be like, oh, and I'm like very very like to run on time. So if my patient's ready at eight thirty, I want to be in the room at eight thirty one,
not eight thirty seven. So I anticipate we're gonna have to leave more like seven twenty five, maybe even seven twenty for this to be realistic with the double drop off, And so I think this is going to be rough for the kids and for me a little bit because I love to run in the morning, and that means that a lot of times I'm bursting through the door at seven and that probably isn't gonna work. So I'm gonna have to really work backwards and think about this.
And really this all goes back to bedtime, because you have to get enough sleep if you're going to get enough up earlier for the kids. And yet we have the challenge of some later evening activities as we'll talk about. So yeah, I mean, I think there's going to be a learning curve. Now, do the schools the two schools start at enough different times that it works to have the two drop offs, because that's of course always the issue.
If you've got like two schools that start at nine o'clock or something like that, Yeah, then you have a problem.
They do, And we know other families with the same exact combination of schools who I've done this before, because it's not terribly uncommon, especially because the younger kids school only goes to eighth grade and the other school goes to twelfth grade. So it's kind of a done thing. And there's enough of a range for Genevieve and Cameron that I think will be okay. Annabel is the one that's going to have the more strict but she's going to be first.
She's the first.
Yeah, so of the other twour slightly later, it's not the end of the world. Then, okay, all right, got it?
Got it? So what about you guys? You have a driver.
I do have a driver, and more importantly a parking pass, because having your license does nothing if there's nowhere to leave your car during the day, and it's you know, sometimes I find I.
Love where I live.
But there are also all the neighborhoods around the high school have giant no parking anytime signs on the street that they have I guess forgot their own on street parking privileges to make sure that no student would ever dare park in front of their house, which is just nuts, but anyway, so it coast. We did manage to get a parking spot at the high school. So the plan is that Jasper and Sam will drive there to gather in the morning. I think the coming home will be
a little bit more unclear. Jasper obviously will drive himself because he has the car there, but Sam has different activities than Jasper does, so we'll just sort of take that day by day and make sure that the two of them touch base at some point. If there is any lack of clarity, about who is coming home when the high school is actually going to be starting at eight thirty this year, so that will be significantly later than the seven.
Thirty start last year.
So last year Jasper would take off usually with Michael, at seven o'clock to get there. This year, that will not be happening. Obviously, nobody needs to leave for seven o'clock for the high school, so I assume that he and Sam will leave around eight o'clock, which is obviously a much later time. They probably won't have to get up till seven thirty around then, which of course means they'll want to stay up later, which we'll figure out
how that gets managed. The middle school, sadly enough, moved earlier because you have only one set of buses and bus drivers, and so things had to move around. Now it didn't move by much. It used to start at eight fifteen, and now it starts at eight. However, Ruth has been playing in the jazz band, which historically has met before school, so.
We shall see.
I assume one of us is going to be driving her a lot of mornings, and that means that we'll be getting up not too much later than we had been before, given that the times have moved. It's just you know, different kids and different things. The elementary school now doesn't start till nine ten, which is again it's the buses.
But I hope that I think we will offer early care for family set. Do they offer early care for families that need it?
There is there is before care and after care that I believe you can get on the list for and pay for. We have never done that, so I don't know how competitive it is to get into it, but yeah, because nine ten is just ridiculous. Like I mean, if you get your kid on the bus at eight forty, I mean I guess that you could then take off after that. But anyway, we'll probably be our nanny will likely be driving Alex and Henry to school in the morning because Henry has to get driven.
His school will start at nine, but he's going full day this year.
He's going nine to three, so that'll be a change for him. And then the reverse, I say, you know, somebody will pick up henrye. We'll do some pickups of Ruth. I'm not sure how this because we'll have the childcare, I think, and then Alex will see maybe he'll take the bus home, maybe he'll get picked up unclear.
Bus tends to.
Be a bit of a unknown craziness chaotic and he doesn't always do well with a slightly more chaotic backgrounds. But and then yeah, the older kid's getting home either bus, activity bus.
I love the activity bus. The activity bus is amazing.
You know, our district has at least in the past had two runs of buses in post school time for the middle school in high school. And it just takes you home so the kid can stay after for an activity.
That is amazing. Does the activity bus go to like every stop the regular bus goes to or is it like.
It does not?
However ours does like the stop that is the activity bus made is the same one that the regular bus would make. Amazing, And my general sense is that it operated slightly more like a taxi service if there weren't that many kids on it, so that the driver was willing to drop you off kind of wherever you asked on his route, So if you passed near your house, he's not going to make you go like three blocks away to be dropped off.
That is amazing. That is great, And I mean I feel like bussing must have come a while. I mean, can't you like track the buses now on apps and stuff.
I think, well, you probably can't.
Well we know, Okay, so I got the bus app and it was never updated, like, it was never quite right, like it would say, my bus is on time, and I'm like sitting there waiting for Alex. It's clearly ten minutes late. So it was like not in real time being updated. That said, I mean, my older kids have devices on them that have more real time data, so if I'm trying to figure out where on Earth they are, that's obviously a more direct way.
Of doing it.
Well, that's very odd that you can track your Uber Eats delivery but not your school bus.
Not your kid's bus.
I'm sure, yeah, I don't know, probably is a way to do it, but yeah, yeah, too funny.
All right, Well should we take a quick break before we go to lunches?
All right, one more quick ad break.
All right, Well we are back talking all things back to school, a perennial favorite topic. So many logistics as we figure out, especially with larger families with lots of school aged kids, figuring out how everything works.
Let's talk about lunch, Sarah.
I know, I'm like, I know, we've had this discussion before, and yet every year I sort of have to think about it. And this year we have some new stuff, which is that everyone gets included lunch at out of our schools. So that's great, one less lunch to deal with. Except she was the only kid that was packing her own lunch consistently. So actually that doesn't really change, but doesn't no wins there, correct. Yeah, see us like changing
very much. I just like being super super simple, like our nannie does help pack lunch generally Tuesday through Friday, and my classic Monday lunch is to just put one of the Trader Joe's pre done salads in the bag and a couple snacks and call it today. My kids are not super picky, so they will actually happily eat like Caesar salad with chicken from Trader Joe's, and it's like done.
It's pressing the easy button. So you just pick those up when you do, like your Saturday shopping trip.
I usually shop on Sunday, so that's exactly, and then I get usually get a couple for me too, so that's often like my Monday and Wednesday work lunch as well, and just anything I don't have to think about it. If I like it, then we're good. I could see them getting tired of it. But I'm sure Trader Joe's has some other pre made standbys that we could pivot to.
Yes, exactly, you'll never run out of TJ's pre made lunch phenomenon. And I hear you have a water bottle hack. Modern children like to be hydrated, So where are you getting your water bottles these days?
Oh geez, Well, we also have the best spoke water bottle collection of one child, including the limited edition Olivia Rodrigo Stanley that we had to enter a lottery to purchase and it has its own little shrine and it's adorable. But I also have a hot tip, which is that ross Like the discount store has really good water bottles, Like I feel like they must be last seasons designer
water bottles, but like, who cares? So we got we got like a nice like Columbia one and an Adida's one, and they look nice and they were like half the price that you would normally pay for these things, because water bottles have gotten quite trendy and expensive.
Yeah, there's a huge problem here, like with the idea of a reusable water bottle that you're buying to be more sustainable, but you buy a new one every time there's a.
Like the trend changes. I mean, anyway, it's.
Probably slightly better than having a disposable water But I refill my disposable water bottles like I just rints them out and reuse them like for weeks on end.
So not entirely sure, that's like my grocery bag thing. I'm like, I just used the paper ones like thirty times and then yeah, exactly.
Exactly, like yeah, you know, hot tip. Many disposable items are not quite as disposable as we are often led to believe. I say, my older three will keep buying. This is not necessarily as economical an option as I remember from like my days of buying school lunch, I mean partly just inflation of thirty years. But you know, they have more options, like the high school cafeteria has all sorts of a La Karte options, like much like going to a corporate cafeteria, So I have not limited that.
I feel like, if you are choosing healthy things, I'm not going to sit here and micro manage your lunch choices.
But I do know that Jasper buys the.
Very expensive strawberry cut up fruit every day, and much as in the airport, that tends to be the most expensive produce option. So Alex and Henry are going to need lunches. We're going to have to figure out how to do that. Alex theoretically is making his own lunch, being older than eight years old. However, he does need a lot of supervision, as he will literally just put one sleeve of crackers in a bag and call it a day.
So what, I.
Think that's so funny and also like, I mean, not the best, not the worst. Maybe you know, it's like, can you at least throw a yogurt in there?
Some cheese to go with those crackers's and crackers like cheese and crackers and raisins. I mean, yes, Grace, it's like a hiking thing that you'd bring with you. But I guess that's totally fine.
With his lunch as being very repetitive. Could you do like all the whole week at once, like put five assembled bags like in the fridge?
Maybe?
Yeah, I mean we could, you know, he could totally do that. Well, I'll bring it up with him. I mean, I it doesn't take that much time, given how modular it is like to throw a pre like a cheese stick, a sleeve of crackers, a thing of raisins like a yogurt in a bag is not a huge thing.
That's also not the worst lunch, by the way. I mean, he's got like a lot of food groups. There's at least some protein in there. And raisins are fruit reasons are fruit there just dried fruit. And we also do apple sauce packets sometimes, you know, as a way to get a little bit of extra fruit type substance into the child. Henry, I mean, I would like to figure out something I was a little healthier because he will eat food.
But yeah, I don't know. I mean, the problem of being the kid behind the kid that has some more limitations is that you wind up pretty much eating the same thing because people just make the same stuff for the two of them. We'll see, we'll see how this all turns out. How about back to school stopping You guys have already been doing that. I assume, given that we're recording this shortly before you guys go back to school, we've.
Done a lot of it. I mean I do a lot of it online, and the kids are more likely to just send me a link to something they want, and if it seems reasonable, I can check it off the list. I did make a big master list of all the stuff that we needed and that was helpful. We have uniforms and that's all done. I have to share that Annifl's school has this very specific dress code of shorts must be six point five inches or more in en seam, and I'm like, point five, what's it?
The point five?
But you know what, we procure them. They're also a lot of wear joggers, so that's comfy and nice. And I will say my one new discovery this year was the company Primary, which I feel like I've heard about on other podcasts and stuff, but I had never shopped there. Genevieve tends to be very picky about uniform bottoms, like I'll buy her the cute little skirts and she won't wear them. She'll only want to wear the little cartwheel bike shorts, and so she's not really supposed to wear
bike shorts. And since she's entering this more official grade level, I was like, Okay, let's get some actual shorts. And Primary has like they're like gym shorts. They're not fancy, but they're like nice like cottony feeling material and stretchy, and she seemed to tolerate them more than most other more uniform like pieces. So it's my uniform tip.
Yep.
Yeah, shoes are always the thing, and I just have the older boys like pick out stuff online and I buy it and like half a size larger than what they're wearing. Ruths feet are an unorthodox size, like we have to uh, you know, and then she finds some shoes uncomfortable. So it's a bit of a process finding
shoes for her, but it provides an opportunity. You have a discussion about how we sometimes make do with things that aren't perfect but are better than what we currently have, and sometimes, you know, we can always be on the lookout for better options, but need at least something. Yeah, we don't have uniforms because obviously we're in public school. Although I guess some public schools have uniforms, so maybe that's not the case.
But we do not.
Jasper will probably be getting some clothes. I noticed one of his favorite shirts had a giant hole in the elbow yesterday. But Sam and Alex may mostly he likes some Oh that what's that? The black dog is like one of those uh stores that's in like North.
It's like Martha's Vineyard or Martha's Vineyard.
Yeah, so it's like Vineyard Vines but a little bit less pricey, but similar type style. So he owns a lot of things from there, and then we just buy jeans and his size. Sam and Alex may mostly shop in the hand me downs of the older boy. The one issue with that is that Alex likes sweatpants mostly, and sweatpants do not pass down at all.
That doesn't work.
The elastic comes out of the waistband, it gets crusty, like its county like, it doesn't hold its elasticity, and they get holes in the knees. So we'll have to purchase for that. But you know, you win, Sammy loose and we now have like little boy black dress shoes in every single size.
So there you go.
And oh well, we'll do a quick PSA for We had this as a question a while ago of like what you need in a school emergency supply kit, things that you tend to get asked for last minute. So while you're doing your shopping, you might want to get some poster board because that often comes up. You could do yourself a favor and buy a trifold or poster board or two if a child has some sort of science project that they are going to need to present. And we have also found that white t shirts get
requested for various things like that. You know, if they have a show that they all need to be wearing white, that's something that may come up.
Or people do taid eye projects or things like that.
That's fun, all right, Well, yes, stock up the poster awards. Totally agree. I think we still have a few more. I'll have to check on my stash. We're going to do a brief discussion activities because Lauren says.
Say this is gonna be the endless episode.
No, you wrote something like I cannot deal with activities yet I'm taking it one weekend time or something like that.
Yeah, but you have become a travel sports parent and a competitive gymnastics parent.
That happened. I feel like there's probably a prior episode where I was like, I'm not going to do this, and then like we tried it and we liked it, and the kids liked it, and now we've got for next year like two sports with like a competition traveling whatever element and I'm excited about it, for better or for worse. You know, the funny thing that I always hear people saying is like it will mess up our
family dinner. But you guys know, I've discussed this. We don't have a good family like it's never been a reality for us to do a regular weeknight family dinner, mostly because Josh is not home reliably and on time for that, and so we're not actually losing much when it comes to that timeframe. I'm a little worried because this year's stuff often goes till eight forty five, which is like my bedtime. But you know what, again, we
will figure that out. I am happy that my kids want to do things, and as long as they find them fun, I am happy to support them in their endeavors. The end.
Yeah.
No, I think some wise people have said that for parenting, you should not say I would never do X, because your kids are about to never like someone has never never before, Like they're going to be into whatever it is that you have said you will never do so.
Within reason, obviously, but you probably want to.
Just figure out who your kids are as people before you want to impose your philosophies and lifestyle entirely on them. I think there's nothing wrong with being busy. I think it's my role as a parent to support my kid's interests. And I feel actually it would be kind of sad if a kid really wanted to do stuff and parents said, absolutely not, because we have to eat dinner at precisely
six pm every single night, Monday through Friday. I mean, unless you, as a parent, are going to get eg up everything else in your life to make that happen. I think having family meals three times a week is great. Three times a week is habit. Do it Friday, Saturday and Sunday right or do Tuesday morning breakfast together. Change your work schedule to make that happen. If family meals matter to you, and then do Tuesday morning breakfast together and let the kid be on the team they want
to be on. Sorry, I will get off my soapbox now.
I love it. Well, how about you?
How about your back to You're just not there yet, but once school does roll around, do you get a surge of like back to school liss energy at all? I do feel like for me it is like a more productive season. And also I like the shift of the rhythm from summer for us. I mean, I know people are like, well, summer's not slower for me, but for us, it is definitely slower. And then I kind of like like how it rubs up and changes, Like I crave those shifts, and so I'm excited for it.
Yeah, I mean a lot of the stuff I do week to week is pretty similar. But I mean, I am planning to start the actual writing of my next book in the fall. I've been doing a lot of research over the summer, so I guess that will be a shift. And I'm training for a half marathon in late October, so that's kind of exciting. And yeah, so you know, I like the back to school energy. I like buying school supplies, but yeah, I don't know.
I mean, the.
Extra stuff does make life more challenging, but I just, you know, make sure that I have enough time to work each week.
Take each week at a time.
Don't think I'm necessarily going to set stuff and forget it, because with five kids, that never happens. But then I'm going to remember, like, oh, yeah, and summer was a lot less like that, right, We had weeks where there was almost zero activities, So I think, you know, I will keep that in mind during the weeks when I get a little bit annoyed.
How much is going on?
Well, so this has been a lot of back to school related topics. We have slightly a question related to that. So, Sarah, how much do you plan family travel around kids' activities or how much should you plan family vacations, et cetera around kid activities?
Yeah, I don't have an answer for this. This is more a question that I ask on my website, so and I was interested in people's answers. In fact, we had one person very adamantly that she really did not plan unless it was the biggest tournament of the year or like some incredibly big milestone event of the season. She prioritized vacations and her kids are like elite level, like going to be college athletes, kind of like that realm.
So for her to say that meant a lot other than I joked with my friend that like, well, maybe consider less talented. We can't afford that kind of lenience. Now I'm just kidding. I personally don't feel like I know what my policy yet is, but I will say that Cameron is for the second year in a row, missing the first week of soccer practice because we're going on family trips, so obviously we're not like Diehard must
be at every single thing. And yet at the same time, if I see a tournament or something on the calendar, I sort of try not to put other stuff there. So I don't know, still learning, still figuring that out. I'm not going to give my definitive answer.
Yeah, it hasn't really come up that much for us because you know, a lot of the activities have been school based, and so they're probably not going to have their major thing during the spring break or during the summer, during Christmas.
And you know my kids.
So the one thing we have had this year, Sam wants to run on the cross country team, and of course they're doing their ramp up in August, which is when we are on vacation. But he's going to go to a couple of the practice that he can, and I mean, he's a freshman and he hasn't done this before, so it's not like he's going to be running varsity anyway. So it's mostly like it's just to try it out. So we'll see what the policies.
Are on that.
But I am hoping that for the newbie freshmen joining the team just for fun. The policies maybe a little different than the people who are competing for the school in the various tournaments. So we shall see. But that's we're not taking our vacation.
I mean, of all sports, that's one where you could very easily be handed a training plan and do it remotely to get ready for your season.
And perhaps one.
Should do that, Sarah, that would be good, and maybe a child could do more runs on their own and not when they are structured from the everyone else doing them around you.
But you know we're not all our own people, all right.
Well, Loves of the week, I have to give a school supply because of course mine is the Cocuyo Campus Notebook. Okay, that sounds fancy, but they're actually not like I think they're kind of like the Mead Spiral bound of Japan. They are like these little kind of like glue bound notebooks, and they're not terribly expensive. You can actually get them at like Barnes and Noble. They're way marked up, like they're way cheaper at Jetpens or maybe even on Amazon.
I don't know, but they're just like great. They're like sixty or so pages the paper is lovely. They have a great form of ruling that I really like. They like lines with like almost like dots in the life. I can't explain it, but they're great. Annabel requested them specifically. She's like, I can you get me these for taking notes because for her school they they're basically on laptops, So they're like, use whatever paper supplies you feel will support you, but we are not going to tell you
what to get. So thrilled to outfit her in Cocuyo campus notebooks. So if you have not tried them, recommend.
I might have to put in an order. I'm always looking for a good notebook. I like spiral bound with a harder cover. Myself always cos or not that these are not that okay, well then maybe not. My love of the week is unexpected hand me down. So I was out in the garage like hunting through stuff, and I found a pair of crocs that fit Henry exactly.
So that's helpful for.
Going out in the yard to the pool or I guess walking on the sand to the beach.
So I'm really.
Glad that we have this pair of cracks and I don't have to buy a pair of sandals for him.
It's all all good. Sometimes you win. You shopped your garage.
I shopped my garage. I probably need to shop my garage. Shot my closets for more things I was getting. When I was getting Alex ready for camp, I found more pairs of size eight to ten shorts. I'm like, who even knew we had all these pairs of eight to ten shorts that still fit? So we packed those with them. He had extras, didn't have to buy more.
All good. Well, this has been a best of both worlds.
We've been talking all things back to school as we have for lo these many years, as our kids have on to low these many grades. So who even knows twenty twenty five back to School Extravaganza what we'll be talking about. But for now, this is this one and we will be back next week with more on making work and life fit together.
Thanks for listening. You can find me Sarah at the shoebox dot com or at the Underscore Shoebox on Instagram, and you can.
Find me Laura at Laura vandercam dot com. This has been the best of both worlds podcasts. Please join us next time for more on making work and life work together.