¶ After school meltdowns: brains, dopamine, and a lit match
So you've taken a brain that's already struggling to regulate and you're flooding it with dope. Mean, so you're essentially handing a very unstable situation.
A bit match.
Hey, guys, welcome back to Stepping Up, the podcast where we talk about real life, real routines and the messy middle of actually trying to get it together. I'm your host, Steph Pace, and if you're new here, high welcome. I'm here to help as much as I can. Please subscribe if you haven't, because you will not want to miss the episodes coming up this season, because I'm literally going to be helping you master your messy life. All right, guys,
¶ Why our after school routine fell apart
I'm want to be completely honest with you. Our afternoons lately have been an absolute shit show, and that's me kind of sugarcoating it. And I'm fully aware that school's well and truly back a long time ago, which is saying something, but that's the reality of it at the moment. And if you've ever picked up your kids from school, you would know that about four minutes later, you're standing
¶ The witching hour: how did people in the 1800s do this?
in your kitchen watching them punch on and wondering how people in eighteen hundreds did this without a single locked bathroom to escape to. This episode is for you basically, because we all know the animal that our children turn into after school is a whole other.
Realm of beast.
And here's the thing, even if you don't have kids, stay because what I'm talking about today is building a PM routine that really works for you. Yes, it's tailored towards the kids, but the things I'm talking about, the psychology and all the things, is linked to us as well. It's about your nervous system for your home, for your sanity, and even if you're managing tiny homes, of household, of business or whatever, these systems are going to change your
afternoons for good. So today I want to be sharing the rules that we have in our house that we lost sight of and we've brought back and now it's saved my sanity again and it stops me crying in
¶ "It stops me crying in the pantry as much"
the pantry as much.
That's the goals. Progress over perfection people.
Now, before we get into it, a bit of a life up jad the twenty twenty seven planners. As you guys know or if you knew here, I have my own brand staff Pace Planners, Planners for messy minds.
Of the world.
Now we do yearly planners, and we're actually well underway. We start the following year's planners usually by February, well February, and there's so much involved in creating a plan. I can't even tell you. I still remember when I first started. I made my first plan ever. I had so many dodgy drawings. I used to have like notebooks out and I draw what I wanted and how I wanted it to look, and my poor graphic designer had to decipher it.
But we've come so so fast since Sid and now I've got a team, and it's just it was incredible, and you know, like it's just so good to be able to create tools for people that aren't Type a's,
¶ ADHD and time blindness: "for me there's either now or not now"
because look, I'm not a Type A. I don't have an alarm clock. I don't even have a concept of time. For me, there's either now or not now. If it's not now, I'm not thinking about it. And that usually means I'm late to things, which I hate. But that's what's going on for me in my world. And also I've just really been like focusing on, you know, changing up my routine a little bit, because, as you know, you go through seasons of your life, things change and
it's not like a cookie cutter. You need to change things up. And this is one of those things with our afternoon routine. Obviously this was different when the kids were little, like before school, but now school like they're at school all day and it releases a lot of emotions which I'll get into in a minute, and that means we need to change it up a little bit
to work with our family. And I always say this, like in business we have, you know, you do quarterly reviews, you look at what's working and what's not, and then you workshop a way to make the business run smoother.
But we don't do that at home. We don't do that with our families.
We just let it kind of take over and then we all wonder why everyone hates each other by six pm. So this is kind of what we're doing here and the afternoon akay witching hour, and I do believe there's witching hour for everyone, even myself included. There's ways we can work with our brain and our emotions and get around that and also just help future us so getting organized and planning. But when I say that this is realistic stuff, this is not I'm not going to make you do a moon.
Things like this is just realistic things.
So this is why you know the season I'm in right now and the things I just talked about, this is why I've really been honing in on our after routine with school. So let's get into it. So here's what's happened. For the past few weeks. Our afternoons have
¶ The moment I realised my after school systems had slipped
been a bloody mess. Everyone is so disregulated. They're like a bunch of hyaenas, including myself. You know, there's snack drama, there's like who got the pink carp It's full of meltdowns, including myself. And I was I remember I was like leaning on the quick kitchen bench one afternoon when some shit was going down and I was like, I was it always been this hard, And I realized it wasn't.
And that's because some of the systems I did have in place before had slipped and I didn't realize because again, things happen, and so it was time for me to really like sit back and look at what's not working and get these systems back in place so our family can like each other again. Okay, So I went back
to basics. I sat down and wrote it out what actually works and what are the non negotiable So things like dinner that's like a non negotiable and then also just like prepped for school the next day and things like that. So that's what today's episode is all about our after school systems. These are the rules that make our afternoons run so much smoother. And as I said, you don't need to have kids for this episode. This
will help everyone. Now, this all helps stop the spiral before it starts and also save your future self and save your kids.
From a very cranky mother, which is not fun for anyone.
¶ RULE 1: After school regulation... regulate first, everything else second
So the first rule is rule number one. Regulate first, everything else second. So as soon as the kids walk in the door, that is the first rule. It's time for them to regulate. You know, I know every single one of you has experienced this with your kids. How feral they get, they get absolutely feral.
I don't know why. I just had an accent then.
And we understand, Like we get that they've been holding in their emotions all day. Think about when you were at school. You have to conform, you have to follow the rules, you have to learn. There's like friendship drama, Like it's a lot for a little person people to deal with, even for us. It's a lot for us to deal with that thirty five. So when they get home to their save space, to you, their safe space,
they unravel. They go absolutely feral, which is so beautiful that they feel safe with us, but it's horrible for us to deal with. And I think once I learnt that part because I didn't realize at first, I was like, why are you so feral every afternoon? And of course it makes sense, and there's other things that are going on, which I'll get into, but you are their safe space, so they are going to let you deal with it.
And the thing is too Just remember it's kind of like you know when you period and you have like PMS and you always like take it out if you get moody, like me, I will take it out on the people I love the most.
And that's the same with the kids.
Because they feel safe, they're going to let you deal with all their shit. Now here's the science behind why they are so feral. On another level, because you know, I like to show you the receipts and I'm not just talking shmack, and I promise this is worth it, So just listen. So once you actually understand what's happening in your kids' brain after school, and honestly your brain as well, because this happens with us the whole regulate first everything else later.
Rule will stop feeling.
Like, oh yeah, cool idea, but it's actually a non negotiable. It'll become a must. Now, there are two parts of
¶ What's happening in your kid's brain after school (the amygdala hijack)
the brain I want you to know about. There's the prefrontal cortex this is the front of your brain, and the sensible one, you know, the one I still question if mind's fully developed at the age of thirty five, but anyway, this is responsible for logic, decision making, regulating emotions, thinking before you speak, basically the adult in the room. That's the part of your brain. Now there's the amygdala. This is a deep, primitive part of your brain. It's
like your alarm system. So the one that goes like danger, threat, react basically before the sensible part, which is the prefrontal cortex, has even had a chance to open its eyes, so it kind of gets in there first. So research tells us when we are stressed, overwhelmed, or disregulated, the amygdala basically hijacks the prefrontal cortex, so it runs as a show.
So the crazy, reactive second cousin is running around running the show, and the mother, who's very calm and centered, the adult, the prefrontal cortex hasn't even caught up yet. They're not running the show at the moment. So it's the alarm system that really takes over and the mother, the sensible part of the brain goes offline. So in plain English, when your kid walks through that front door after six hours of holding their shit together, their alarm
is running the show. The crazy second cousin. I don't know why I came up with that analogy, but this is what we're going with. And crazy second cousin's name is is Amy the amygdala. And you cannot reason or instruct or have a calm conversation with Amy, okay, your child right now because the brain is not available for those things.
You know.
The mother, the prefrontal cortex, she's not running the show right now. So when you're standing there asking them what they did at school today or you know, and they lose it over something completely ridiculous, they're not being dramatic. They are literally they literally don't have access to that part of their brain that would allow them to respect in a way of a normal human. The lights are on,
but nobody's home upstairs. That's what's going on, okay, And this is I said, this is not just the kids, this is us as well. Like I know, like you know, when we get really reactive and we go into fight or flight, this is when Amy is running the show in our brain, so we're not really like you can't think clearly. And this is why the afternoon is like a collusion of two dysregulated nervous systems trying to interact with each other, which is us versus them, and you're standing.
They're wondering why is it like this?
Why is this so painful? And the fix is actually quite simple. You give the brain time to come back online before you ask it to do anything. Thirty minutes is good enough. And it's like things like comfory clothes and I'll go into it like anything non stimulation. So our regulation routine, which I'll tell you what ours is in a minute. It lets Amy go sit back in her seat and Mum can come back up and run the show in the brain, and then everything else is
more possible. And this isn't like soft parenting. This is neuroscience. Guys like this isn't just us, you know, and obviously we like to be very aware parents, but this is just how our brain works. So this is why we
¶ The 30-minute decompression routine + calm corner ideas
have rule number one. Regulate first, everything else second. And this changed everything for us once we started doing this, and the girls a lot of the time they will say, I don't want to do this, I want to do this, this, and this because Amy's up in their brain running the show and they're trying to chase dopamine. She wants the dopamine, she wants the screens, she wants this, but no, Amy needs to learn to sit her air down.
So when the girls get home.
The first priority, and the only priority, is regulation, not homework, not conversations about their day, none of that. Their bodies have been on all day and they've been sitting still, listening, following the rules managing friendships.
And they are cooked. They are absolutely cooked.
So when they walk through that door, we give them thirty minutes of quiet decompression time. I like to call it the calm corner, or I call it fairy time, whatever you want to call it to make it sound fun, because regulation time doesn't sound too fun for a child.
Do that, So you could even have like a little box.
Of things that you could have a box of, like you know, fidgets, coloring in books, whatever you want for them to pick from. Now, for us, this rule looks like them getting into their comfy clothes, especially if you've got any kids on the spectrum or anything like that. Having that sensory release from their uniform for the day is like taking your braer off. So let's give them that, you know, so let's get them into their comfortable clothes.
I'm not saying this is needed, but with my girls, especially like we just want them to feel calm and comfortable. It's like that physical cure trigger to tell the brain that we're done for the day. You know, I've talked about this before, like the que equals the action and all that type of thing.
That's what we're telling the brain.
And then it's time for a snack and water right away, because a hungry kid is a feral kid. And when your blood sugar drops, which it tends to do in the afternoon, all these symptoms are amplified. Think about like why we crave sugar and stuff in the afternoons because your blood sugar has dropped and then you can't I think clearly you're tired, you're cranky. We need to like try and stabilize that, which i'll get into in a minute.
And then once they've kind of given themselves some calm time, like they're reading books, or they're coloring in or they're in their little calm corner, they can go outside. They can play and touch grass, they can listen to music, they can draw doboard games. And you'll see the theme here. There is no technology and look, we listen, we don't judge. I'll get into that in a minute, but it's so important right now that they do not get a screen in front of their faces. Okay, I know it's hard,
but trust me, you'll thank me later. And then once their body is calmed down, then they can start to do the things. Does this prevent ninety percent of arguments? Yes, I said ninety Okay, let's be let's say it's forty percent of higuments.
Yes, and that is a win.
Even if it's twenty percent, it's going to really not be putting fuel on the fire. Rule Number two is
¶ RULE 2: Screen time rules... no TV until the after school checklist is done
no TV or tech until the tasks are done.
So I have a little bit of a checklist. Of course, I do some Sturff face. And this is for the girls to do after school.
And this is after they've regulated and Amy sat down and they're a lot calmer. And it's a little bit of a checklist just to help us out, help future us and give them a bit of a sense of like responsibility.
I guess I know it's a bit boring, but that's what we have to do. Now.
We all know that the second screen goes on, the game is over. You'll never get their attention back and they turn crazy, like for me, my girls crazy. They enter like this kind of like screen Injuice Coma and nothing like anything you like, there's nothing you can say that will penetrate that. So you need to make sure the checklist is done first, so you know they've regulated, they've done all the things, and now it's to do the little checklist. So our checklist, and this is going
to look different for everyone. The first one is obviously uniforms off. Now if they haven't like followed the whole cozy clothing thing from the regulation.
Step, you can do this here.
And then school bag unpacked, so making sure you get the notes because I know my girls like to keep their notes in their bags and then I don't find out about things. So that's a big one. Lunchbox is by the sink. Again, it depends on how old your child is. Like my girls are only year three and four,
so they're doing this stuff. They didn't do it in like KINDI and that I try to get them doing it then, but it gives them that, you know, sense of responsibility, and they're like, you know, you're a big kid.
Now you can do this.
And you've got to even start it from kiddy and be like, this is what you do when you go to school. It's easier to do it then to be honest with you. So you got your lunchbox by the sink, You've got a school bag unparked, school notes on the bench and her uniforms off.
Do they always do it?
No? I wish, but the rule exists and the expectation is set and it just helps the whole family. So and they know if they don't do these things, they don't get TV. And look, if you have to hide the remote, hide the remote, but just remember where you put it. Not speaking from experience or anything, because that's not fun. Now, before I move on, I'm not here
¶ Screen time and dopamine: why screens after school make meltdowns worse
to screen shame anyone like God, I work in social media, Like I love a scroll, give me a scroll. And there's always times where, like you know, don't everyone's family's got different rules. I'm a bit strict with screens with the kids because they again, they act like it's crack and it's not worth the fight. So, you know, rainy days, long car trips, whatever, if it's weekend, if you do
it every day, whatever, whatever you want to do. But you know, screens are at all and there's like a time and a place for them, depending on your child and your.
Situation and what you believe as well.
And this is just just about the timing because the science around screens, especially after school, when their brain is in that state we just talked about, this is where it gets really interesting. And I think again, once you guys know this, things will make so much more sense and you won't just think your kids just fighting you because they can. Yes, they definitely would do that too, but let's just give them the benefit of the doubt right now. So let's just pretend we have an implemented
this new routine. You know, your kid just walks through the front door. They're just regulated prefrontal cortex, the sensible part is offline.
What do we do?
We hand them a screen and Amy's like, yes, dope at mean, And this is what it actually does. Every time your child picks up a screen, the game, a video, scrolling anything, their brain releases that feel good chemical, the reward chemical.
And the problem with dopamine is.
That the brain is greedy and she wants a lot of it, especially Amy, and the more it gets, the more it needs. But over time, it takes more and more screen time to get the same feeling of reward. So maybe before you get a really big hit of dopamine from like five minutes of screen time, and up with time, you need two hours of screen time to get the same amount of dopamine, and the brain is craving it. So you've taken a brain that's already struggling
to regulate and you're flooding it with dopamine. So you're essentially handing a very unstable situation a bit match. And here's the part that explains the meltdown ward when you try to take it away. When you remove the screen, the dopamine levels drop and the brain immediately starts working hard to get back and how to get back to that feeling. So this is not your kid being dramatic.
This is like a chemical withdrawal response, which is when you find out it's actually kind of scary, Like I know that's how our brain works, but like that's why they panic so much when you.
Try to take the screen away. It's because the brain's like, no.
No, no, we need this, we need this, we need this, you know, like over Bluey, Like I know, look Blue is a great show that I love that. So you know, the no techtal tasks are done and regulated isn't like a punishment. It's just us giving them the best chance at feeling okay every afternoon and the afternoon not going.
To absolute shit.
It really is us protecting our brain and their's from you know, our brain that's already depleted from a dopamine spiral that's going to make the rest of the evening absolutely crap.
¶ RULE 3: After school snack prep (the lazy plate + protein hacks)
Rule number three the snack plate prep.
Now, as I mentioned earlier, our blood sugar levels can drop in the afternoon, so and this is also one to stop us being a snack bitch all afternoon. Like I know, if I don't do this this rule, I'm so stressed and I'm like I'm not ready and like I've got to get snacks ready and I'm trying to do all the other things.
So like you know, as soon as you.
Sit down, like they want a snack, and then they want another snack, and then you've a snack bitch for forty five minutes, and then they.
Won't eat their dinner.
So this is what we do. The fix is to do a snack prep. So either I will pre chop fruit and veggie sticks earlier in the day or even on a Sunday and do a big batch, which I'll talk about some hacks in a minute, and then as soon as they walk through the door, I'm like, here you go.
Here's your snack plate. This is what you get.
You get what you get, and you don't get upset, so you pop it on the table and that's what they get. So things like you know, there's some snacks I would recommend over others, like protein is going to be really helpful for their blood sugar regulation, which I want to go through in a second. But here's some hacks for this rule. So the first one is what
I said, the Sunday prep. So on Sundays, just like prep, it's obviously not gonna last you the whole week, but I will like pre chop hard veggies or pre chop fruit, put them in like the fridge, savor containers that actually make them last. And then things like portioning things into containers like whatever you need to do just so you can grab them and then chuck it on a plate
and give it to them. And I know it sounds like really really organized and like a bit of effort, but it takes like ten to fifty minutes, and then in the afternoons you're going to just have your shit together.
It's amazing. Now.
Hack number two so the days where maybe you're prep from Sunday that's all gone, maybe you haven't you know, gone and got new groceries or something. You need to have things in the in the fridge and in the pantry. That is like a lazy plate situation. So you know, things like cheese and crackers, ham, a handful of grapes like mini cucumbers straight from the fridge, things that you don't really have to prep but you can chuck them on a plate and it's good enough, because good enough
is perfect right now. Hack number three is to keep a snack basket at their level. Now, I love this because you need to have like a basket of pre approved healthy snacks that you're okay with them just grabbing in the afternoon, because the thing is, again, when they're disregulated, they're on a screen, they haven't had protein, and they're having like sugar crash and they're grabbing more sugar and they're just and that's not going to help like stabilize
their blood sugar. Again, you're putting fuel on the fire. So let's have a basket in the pantry or in the kitchen. You can get it out and they know, okay, you can take these in the afternoon. You take two of these or whatever it is, and it's all preapproved and it's okay for them to have. So things like musically bars, rice crackers, saltanas like whatever works for your family. And the goal is that they can access this without asking you, Like that's the key. Let's not be a
snack bitch anymore. And then that leads us on to hack number four, which I've mentioned a fa a few times now, which is protein. Protein is your best friend. So carbs alone will spike and crash them fast. So once you get protein into them, it will stabilize their blood sugar and it buys.
You a lot more calm time.
A hangary kid and a sugar spike, as I mentioned, is not a good time, and it's going to get them full of for longest.
If you've given them given.
That to them straight after school, they should last fine until dinner and then actually eat their dinner. Now, of course, I'm going to give you a list of kid friendly protein snacks just to help. So some ideas are cheese sticks all like cheese cubes, ham and turkey slices, boiled eggs, hummus with crackers or veggie sticks, yogurt, peanut butter on rice cakes, mini baby bell cheeses, which I love them and I'm not meant to eat much dairy, but it's
so good. And then there's tuna and crackers which you could not pay me enough to eat you no, sounds disgusting.
So and this also works for us.
This works for adults as well, if I don't pre prep snacks for myself or at least have a little list somewhere that I can go like in the afternoon. I'm a potato. I don't even know my own name, so I need to be reminded. So have you know, prep your own snack plate for the afternoon with these protein sources, and then you'll feel so so much better,
¶ RULE 4: Evening lighting for kids sleep... no overhead lights after 6pm
all right. Rule number five, no overhead lights after six pm. Now I'm an overstimulated toddler.
You see.
Ryan loves the overhead lights. He will pump them until and you can fall asleep with them. Morton, I just do not understand it. Like I can't even have like a glimmer from a star outside coming through the window, and I can't sleep, like I have to wear like an eye mask to sleep.
So the rule is after six pm.
All the overhead lights come off even earlier if it's like winterime, like turn this shit off.
Only like mood lighting.
We're talking about like red lights like nothing because just remember, like I'll get this into this in a sect. But the blue lights on our phone and like our screens tells us ray in it's daytime. There's a reason why we're feeling like, let's we can't sleep. So things like lamps warm light. You can get the warm light like light bulbs, just like a soft environment. Pretend you're going on a date. Pretend you have a date coming over and you want it to be all like mood lighting
like that's the vibe. And again this isn't just for the kids, this is for us as well, because the bright overhead lights are really just keeping your nervous system on go mo like, let's go go go, Like, yes, this is great in the mornings when we need to, you know, have the what is it called the quartersol spike in the morning gets us going, but we don't want that at nighttime we're done. So research found that compared to adults, school aged children experience nearly twice the
melotone and suppression from evening bright light exposure. So it's actually affecting the melotone and our body produces to make us go to sleep. So that overhead light you've been blasting through dinner and bath time, the entire bedtime routine is actually working against you and it's suppressing the very hormone that's supposed to be telling your brain and body and your kids that it's time to wind down and go to sleep. And then you wonder why they won't sleep.
It's like Rian, like sometimes you'll give the kids a bath, or like it will be like freaking seven that at nine he's raving them up and playing and I'm like.
What are you doing? What are you doing?
They're not meant to be going crazy right now. These studies are like they've proven that the LED lighting that's in our homes, that's the very light that is suppressing their melatonin. Now rule number six, the PM reset. So
¶ RULE 5: The PM reset routine... putting the house to bed
we've done everything we possibly can to get the kids in a really good state. You know, they've had their food, they're regulated, there's no screens, there's no overhead lights. Now this is more so about us and running the household. So this is the closing shift. They're putting the house to bed, the PM reset, whatever you want to call it. I've been doing this for such a long time. As
soon as this slips, everything hits the fan. So after dinner, instead of leaving in the kitchen like a crime scene and then just collapsing on the couch and scrolling, which sounds so good, we need to kind of treat it like we're closing up a restaurant. So like you know, the closing shift in hospitality, that's when they literally are like resetting the restaurant for the next day. So if you work in hospitality, you would know what I'm talking about.
So everything has a place and you don't leave until it's done. And then the next shift workers will thank you because it's ready. And the next shift workers is you in the morning, future, you who will be so pissed off if they wake up t dishes in the sink and nothing's ready. And for me, I do this with a playlist again. At night, I will use a bit more like red hot chili peppers kind of thing, more of like a calming one. But I'll put my
headphones on. Kids are in bed, they're reading whatever, they're asleep hopefully, and I start doing my closing shift for the house or start putting the house to bed. And for me, like it's like the millennial bangers that can work whatever you need to do. But for me, because I'm a toddler, I need to have a bit more calming stuff.
Now.
In my AM reset, I will have the bangers, but this is a bit more chill.
Now.
This playlist triggers my brain to tell me it's time we do this. When this music plays, we do this, And this is the PM reset. So things like doing the dishwasher, wiping the benches, you know, checking your planner
¶ The catchall basket: organising after school mess
for the next day, making sure the kids lunches are sorted, like all those types of things, resetting the lounge room, and this reset like also includes a hack I've shared before, which is a catsual basket. Now, if you're new here and you haven't heard of the catsual basket hack, this is a basket where you put in one of the
high traffic areas of the house. So usually it's like the lound room fast and we all have a basket each, And basically the idea is it's like called the catsual basket, but it's also called this doesn't belong in this effing room basket, So anything that belongs to Harper Willow Oh chuck in their baskets. And then part of the PM reset, which is like before the kids go to bed, they
are supposed to grab their basket. I say supposed to because sometimes I have to do it, but that's okay because Amy still might be running their show a little
bit and they put their stuff away. Now this is just batching the mess, and this really really helps because then you're not doing a million trips with like polypockets and bloody blocks and lego and whatever else they bring out, and they bring out half their room, but it's in their basket, and it's contained, and then they can do their own little reset lap or you do it for them, but I would try to make them do it themselves.
You can make that part of their checklist. Actually, why didn't I think of that. Yes, I'll make it part of the check Okay, So they're going to do that, and that is part of the reset.
So then you wake up in the morning and like the house has been put to bed and you can wake up fresh. Now rule number seven is again it's for us because we deserve this, and its adult time is a non negotiable.
And now I don't mean sexy time, like unless.
You want to do that, you do that like lucky lucky them. But you know, once the kids are down, you really do need to have some time to yourself. And I go, like, you always feel like there's so many things to do, there's like more washing to do, blah blah blah, but you really do need at least even like forty five minutes before you get into bed
¶ RULE 6: Mum's adult time + revenge bedtime procrastination
that feels like your time.
Because I don't know about you, guys.
If I feel like I don't get this time, I end up doing something called revenge bed time procrastination, and that is where you know you should be going to sleep. It could be eleven pm at night and you can't help but keep scrolling on your phone, or you can't help by doing something because you feel like your day is not yours. You feel like if you've been doing
things for everyone else all day. So if you don't have your own adult time, this is what will happen and you probably won't go to bed till really late. So just anything that's not a must, just let you have your time. If it's forty five minutes, could be reading a book, watching show, whatever it is, but make sure you do that because otherwise you're going to start
really really late. And for me, part of this routine, like just before I do my adult time, I do my planner check, which I mentioned before, because I really
¶ Evening planner check: the routine that closes my day
need to know like I've got everything sorted for the next day, because then I feel like I can let go of the day, like release everything I've been carrying for the day and move forward and just relax in bed time. And the best thing if you're new to using a planner, really need to keep it in your face at all time. So keep it open on the bench, keep it open in your office wherever you are, just keep it open, because it's if it's out of side,
it's out of mind. So there we have the seven rules of our after school routine that saves my kid's sanity and mine. And I hope today's episode helped you
¶ Outro
because I know all these tips, the things I wish I knew so so long ago, because I would have saved myself a lot of times crying in the pantry. Like I said, but if you guys implement these things, I would love you to take a photo and just tag me on Instagram. Tag stepping up on Instagram, and again, jump in our Facebook community and you guys can talk about your own tips and hacks because there'll be so much more and you guys can take over the conversation
there as well. And if you guys haven't already, please subscribe to other people can also find the show and help us master their mess.
And I will be in your ears next week on Monday. Bye,