I told my friends the other day that when I run for office (which I often threaten, sometimes as Mayor sometimes President depending on the mood/problems I want to solve and usually after a couple glasses of wine) my #1 goal will be to pass a new national holiday for parents – an “organize your house and life day off” at the beginning of the school year and another one right after the holidays in early January. The kids will go to school, and grandparents will step in as substitute teachers so the teachers who are parents can also take the day off. It would 100% benefit the country writ large. I know I’d be a better leader if my house and schedule were fully organized. Could we do this organizing on a weekend? Maybe! But we want to actually spend a nice time together as a family on the few summer weekends we get!! And then fall sports slam you in the face so fast that your weekends get gobbled up, driving kids all over town. Oh, and that’s another thing, I will also run on the “No sports on Sundays” platform. Being raised Mormon, you just had church and family day on Sundays, and dare I say I think it’s what we need as a society (church or no church, just a rest day to reset, connect, and ready yourself and your house for the week). When did Sundays become such a kids’ sports day????? I was talking to Sean Lowe about how it is in Texas, assuming it was held more sacred there since church is more widely attended, and he said, “nope, so many football and cheer practices,” because sports are such a thing there. Do we need to move to Utah!!?? It’s just out of control at such young ages, IMHO. Last spring, we were spending 4 hours on a field on Sundays (plus the 1/2 hour commute) and then had tumbling practice in the afternoon on the opposite side of town. This fall, we made the kids choose between sports, which is a bummer for them, opting for family time instead (they have mixed feelings). I’m down for weeknight practices, our kids love structure and anything to keep them from asking for screens (especially as the days grow shorter and darker). But give us our weekends back!! A game or two at the local school? FINE.
Anyway, in an attempt to assert my will, I closed down the office last Friday and today for a four-day weekend for myself and the team. We went camping over the weekend, and I’m using today to go through all their closets (with them, as school hasn’t started yet) and purge and organize their new clothes. School starts tomorrow, so we’ll meal prep this afternoon, which always makes me feel like a “good mom,” lol. Let me know if you want a “what we meal prep and why” post. I’m not an expert, but I have dialed it in (and I listen to podcasts or audiobooks while doing it, which keeps me entertained and feels like good “me” time). It usually takes 3 hours, but I really do enjoy it (the kids might “help”).
So no real blog post today – the one we had planned that Jess prepped for me to write fell through my cracks, and that’s ok. I find the end of August so challenging – we aren’t done with summer (Labor Day is next weekend!) and yet we are forced to put on our fall brains. Most moms I know are very discombobulated and feel all out of sorts. You want to enjoy the last weeks of the long days, but then you look at your family calendar, and it’s just too much. Oh, I want to push back about the whole “let your kids be bored” thing. We all want to do that, of course, but the screens these days are so addictive and tempting that it’s just so much easier to have organized sports or after-school activities than deal with them asking for them (even though we have clear boundaries and they know when they can/can’t have them). We do a ton of scheduled weekly playdates. My mom, who is helping to raise my nephews, agreed that screens (specifically video games) have made parenting so much harder, so much more of a battle, than when she was raising her 6 kids in the 80s and 90s (just go outside!). That made me feel better. Our kids don’t have phones or anything (we are adhering to Jonathan Haidt’s four rules for screens), but between the video games and the ultra-processed food everywhere, I feel like we are constantly battling these really addictive things that are just so normalized. Or maybe I listen to too many podcasts? Maybe…
That’s all to say, hang in there, moms/parents. I’m obviously spoiled that I control my company and can give extra days off to myself and my team (which always makes me feel better – to not be the only one to benefit), so I hope you all have some time for yourself. Use one of those mental health PTO days if your company gives them – that’s what they are for. Brian is the lead parent and does 50/50 house/parent work here, so I can’t complain, and yet we both feel a bit stretched. I know that it’s just that we haven’t settled into the fall routine yet and have too many fun social engagements, which will be reduced soon. And “SOUP-tember” is right around the corner (which is code for yes, a lot of soups, but mostly just a healthy structured routine of school/work, exercise, going to bed early, staying in at night, cooking and romance novels 🙂 If you haven’t binged Modern Family or The Good Place with your kids yet it’s a fantastic time to start. We have nightly TV family time from 7-8 pm and need a new show that we’ll all enjoy, because those two have kept us entertained for the last year. Any suggestions for 10 and 12-year-olds?
Happy back to school to all those parents, and thanks to all those who support us 🙂
Opening Image Credit: Photo by Kailtin Green