Back to School – Managing New Routines

By Whitney

As September approaches, those of us with school-aged kids must adjust our schedules, putting in place the routines that allow us to manage the school day.

If you’re not a stay-at-home mom living in Mayberry, you probably rely on some support from others to get your child back and forth between home and school. Whether those plans include a babysitter, grandparent or an after-school care program, it is important that each child be confident he or she knows the day’s pick-up and drop-off plan.

Write down your child’s schedule for each school day and review it together. Make a copy for the backpack, a copy for your child’s teacher, and copies for yourself and other parent.

My daughter is with a shared nanny on Mondays, in preschool Tuesday, Thursday, Friday, and with me on Wednesdays. It’s no surprise that I have dreams in which I cannot find her when I go to pick her up.
This month, I’m staring down the barrel of two kids at different schools for the first time, one of which is new to our family. We’ll expect to carpool at some point, but don’t yet know the other families. The juggling will be stressful for me, sure, but I also don’t want to lose sight of the stress it puts on my kids.

When I was a gradeschooler, my mom instituted a practice that I will pass on to my kids this school year. We had a password. If someone came to pick me up with whom I was unfamiliar, I was supposed to ask for the password. If they knew the password, I knew that my mom really had sent them to give me a ride. Brilliant, right? (My password was the name of a town where my dad lived.)

Life is complicated, isn’t it? Back to school – it’s not just about new shoes! May your children wake up on the right side of the bed (and with dry sheets), your school never have a staff planning day that takes you by surprise, and your car battery not die on the day that you drive carpool. We wish you a most excellent start to this school year.