10 Tips for Back-to-School Time

My fabulous friend Haley runs a blog called "Leadership Girl," and she is exploring the idea of inviting guest bloggers to discuss work-life balance issues, working mom issues, etc. Since I am always looking for an excuse to avoid cleaning my house, I told her I would put something together. With school having just started up again, I thought I could write an entry called "10 Tips for Back-to-School Time."

....And THEN I realized, I have no idea how to give tips, because I don't have it together myself and have kind of given up the goal of ever having it together. So for any fellow Messy Moms out there, who are also struggling to get it together, here are 10 Tips for Back-to-School Time.

10. Avoid partial bags of shredded cheese when packing school lunches. At the end of the last school year, I realized at the last minute that not only had I forgotten to pack my daughter a lunch and she was walking out the door in 30 seconds, but that I had almost no food in the house. The biggest item that we ended up throwing in her lunch box was a half-used bag of shredded cheddar cheese. At least aspire to wait until after the first few weeks before resorting to such measures.

9. If your child uses a computer for school, make them Back Up Their Data. No, really. When I was getting my PhD, the summer after Daniel was born, my hard drive at work failed and I lost everything that I had not backed up, which was an insane amount of work and literally made me cry. I was also trying to finish a dissertation and dealing with a newborn and a 4-year-old, so that might have also made this seem utterly devastating, but gently encourage your child that the Power to Prevent the Worst Thing Ever is in their hands.

8. Remember to Sign the Planner. Oh, the homework planner. A seemingly much bigger deal for you, the parent, than for your child, the student. It is much harder than it sounds. For one thing, you need to have a writing implement around to do this, and all pens and pencils in our house are siphoned away by tiny elves during the night.

7. Don't Send Your Child to School in Clothing that is 2 sizes too small. One size too small? That's nothing. But two sizes too small starts to run into bare midriffs and other clothing that should never see the light of day. Unfortunately, following this rule means that like me, you will end up with exactly one (one!!) long-sleeved shirt that still fits your daughter after her insane growth spurt, but at least bare stomachs will be avoided.

6.  Keep Track of All Forms. Oh my goodness, this one is hard. SO. HARD. We somehow managed to lose our son's enrollment form for the after-school program between school and our house....on the first day of school. Fortunately, we found that we had left it at a friend's house. Because, obviously.

5. Fill Out All Forms Correctly. This one is also so hard for me. Said son's enrollment form was sent home with us because...we had forgotten to fill out most of it when we returned it last year. And at the beginning of kindergarten, the school nurse called me not to report on an injured child, but to try to clarify some of my son's immunization record because some of the dates I had provided did not make sense. Oh, forms. Did I mention that I am an accounting professor?

4. Write Down All Dates Correctly. This one is tricky, because it involves writing down correct dates on your own calendar, and there is no one there to catch your errors until you suddenly fail to show up someplace at the right time. So just make sure that you write down the correct time/places/days for choir! And church! And running club! And Scouts! And 4-H! And bringing treats! Actually, to make it fun, maybe you should just make up a fake commitments and then challenge your spouse to see if he/she (oh, who are we kidding, he :) ) can tell the real obligations from the fake ones.

3. Learn to Bend the Space/Time Continuum - This would solve so many problems. Sports, PTO, curriculum night, and Scouts all at the same time and at different places for different children? No problem!

2. Just Say Yes! Because saying "no" is for drugs, and saying "yes" for every other possible commitment that can come your way is Fun! Sanity is overrated anyway, right?

1. Let it Go.... In the words of Elsa, Let it Go. You will screw stuff up. You will forget things. You will forget to sign the blasted planner. You will show up at the wrong place and wrong time for the 4-H club event. And you know what? It will all be okay.

*****

So that is the best I can do on back-to-school tips. Does anyone have any tips that work for your own house?