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Speaker 1: Hi.

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Speaker 2: I'm Laura Vanderkamp. I'm a mother of five, an author, journalist,

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Speaker 2: and speaker.

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Speaker 3: And I'm Sarah hart Hunger, a mother of three, practicing physician,

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Speaker 3: writer and course creator. We are two working parents who

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Speaker 3: love our careers and our families.

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Speaker 2: Welcome to best of both worlds. Here we talk about

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Speaker 2: how real women manage work, family, and time for fun.

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Speaker 2: From figuring out childcare to mapping out long term career goals.

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Speaker 2: We want you to get the most out of life.

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Speaker 1: Welcome to best of both worlds. This is Laura.

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Speaker 2: This episode is airing in mid August of twenty twenty four.

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Speaker 2: This is our annual back to school episode. I believe

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Speaker 2: we've called it several things, Sarah, how are we over

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Speaker 2: the past seven years?

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Speaker 1: What is it?

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Speaker 2: Back to school Extravaganza, Bonanza? What else did we do back?

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Speaker 3: And it does look like we've done a back to

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Speaker 3: school episode every year for several before Extravaganza and Bonanza,

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Speaker 3: it was like back to School COVID and then back

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Speaker 3: to School COVID two point zero or something like that.

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Speaker 3: And we did do one in twenty nineteen as well,

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Speaker 3: but I didn't see what that one was called. I

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Speaker 3: wouldn't be surprised if we recycled Bonanza and Extravaganza, because

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Speaker 3: I don't remember going back to look in previous years.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, at least it wasn't like back to school Palooza

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Speaker 2: or something.

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Speaker 1: I think we've tried that as.

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Speaker 3: We saved that for Planner Paluza. Planner Paluza.

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Speaker 2: Yes, well you know it's uh, you do this for

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Speaker 2: many years, so we have a upcoming anniversary episode. You

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Speaker 2: do kind of run through the same titles over and

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Speaker 2: over and some of the same topics. But back to

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Speaker 2: school is always an exciting time, and for families with

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Speaker 2: school age children, it is going to affect all your

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Speaker 2: household rhythms, schedules. Many people have to completely rework their

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Speaker 2: schedules at this point. For get kids various places. People

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Speaker 2: who have jobs that either are flexible where they're changing

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Speaker 2: some of their hours around to accommodate the school schedules

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Speaker 2: and activities, or people who don't have a whole lot

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Speaker 2: of job flexibility need to figure out how that will

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Speaker 2: all work as well. So it's a big topic and

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Speaker 2: certainly is for us as well. So Sarah, there is

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Speaker 2: a little bit of difference though of when people go

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Speaker 2: to school, When people do go back to school. For me,

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Speaker 2: this is like what it's back to school? When do

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Speaker 2: you guys start?

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Speaker 3: I know, this is a difficult one because I feel

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Speaker 3: like there's this pressure to get your back to school

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Speaker 3: content out because some people are very excited to listen

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Speaker 3: to it in early August because their kids are headed

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Speaker 3: back to school early, and mine are in that group.

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Speaker 3: We're not in like the earliest wave. But this year,

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Speaker 3: our local public actually starts August twelfth, which for South

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Speaker 3: Florida is actually quite early. Usually when we're like mid August,

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Speaker 3: and my kids go back somewhere between that and then

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Speaker 3: the week after, depending on the school in the scenario

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Speaker 3: as we will discuss. So we're on the pretty early side,

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Speaker 3: although not the earliest. My dear friend Kelsey, who podcasts

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Speaker 3: at Girl Nextdoor podcast, her kids go to a public

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Speaker 3: school in Arizona, and I believe it starts in late July.

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Speaker 1: Oh my goodness. So they win, they win. We just

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Speaker 1: keep moving it back and back and back.

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Speaker 2: Next thing, you know, summer break is starting in a

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Speaker 2: April or something. I just forget the whole spring break concept.

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Speaker 1: I don't know.

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Speaker 3: I think they do end early, and they may have

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Speaker 3: a little bit more of a year round kind of structure,

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Speaker 3: which is also another school configuration neither Laura nor I

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Speaker 3: have personal experience with, but is definitely a thing in

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Speaker 3: some reasons. And so for you guys, back to school

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Speaker 3: could almost be anytime. Yeah, it could be anytime this

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Speaker 3: UD we could keep running this episode year round.

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Speaker 2: Yeah. No, we start September three this year, which is

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Speaker 2: actually a relatively.

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Speaker 1: Early start for us.

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Speaker 2: I'm going to say, because Labor Day happens to be

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Speaker 2: about as early as Labor Day can be this year,

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Speaker 2: So it's always the Tuesday after Labor Day, unless we

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Speaker 2: have a configuration of the major Jewish holidays that bump

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Speaker 2: up against early September, in which case we have gone

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Speaker 2: back after the start of Rashashana. So that has pushed

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Speaker 2: it more to know September eight or nine if it's

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Speaker 2: been early. But the holidays are later this year, so

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Speaker 2: Rashashana is in early October, so that doesn't.

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Speaker 3: Put our start any different. But I feel like you

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Speaker 3: love when it's late, am I correct? I do.

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Speaker 2: It's just like bonus time because obviously we've had full

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Speaker 2: time childcare, we have a full time nanny, so it's

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Speaker 2: not that we're scrambling for coverage for that last time,

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Speaker 2: and I find that having time into September often allows

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Speaker 2: us to take some sort of late summer vacation at

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Speaker 2: a time that is maybe not quite as full in

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Speaker 2: a lot of places, because many people, as you mentioned,

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Speaker 2: are going back to school in August twelfth or something

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Speaker 2: like that, and so I don't know, I like the

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Speaker 2: idea of still being on summer break into September. We've

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Speaker 2: got some plans for that this share, which we'll talk

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Speaker 2: about in future episodes.

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Speaker 1: I'm sure.

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Speaker 2: But yeah, it's nine to three this year, Henry is

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Speaker 2: I think a day or two later. But yeah, we're

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Speaker 2: headed into it, and for better or for worse, school

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Speaker 2: schedules will impact our routines. So we're going to discuss

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Speaker 2: all aspects of this topic in this episode, and hopefully,

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Speaker 2: even if this is not your first back to school

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Speaker 2: round with us, or you're back to school round in general,

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Speaker 2: you'll think of something that will help you make this

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Speaker 2: transition a little bit more calm and smooth.

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Speaker 3: I mean, truthfully, I think one of the reasons this

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Speaker 3: is such a perennial topic is because every year is different,

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Speaker 3: especially so if you have multiple kids. Because it increases

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Speaker 3: the likelihood that some going to be having a big

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Speaker 3: change in any given year. If you've got four different kids,

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Speaker 3: probably someone is moving from elementary to middle, or middle

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Speaker 3: to high or whatever. And so I do often feel

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Speaker 3: to some extent like I am starting from scratch every time.

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Speaker 3: Obviously this is not our first rodeo, but every combination

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Speaker 3: is new for us. And every year I start to

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Speaker 3: feel like, oh, how weird I don't have a kid

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Speaker 3: in XYZ young child grade. And yeah, newsflash to self,

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Speaker 3: like that's not going to stop.

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Speaker 2: Well, Sara, why don't you talk about your current configuration

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Speaker 2: because you have some new stuff going on for your

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Speaker 2: family this year?

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Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean don't we all? So for this year,

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Speaker 3: we have a first grader, a fifth grader, and a

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Speaker 3: seventh grader, and I do feel like not having a

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Speaker 3: kindergarten preschool child, and at our school, what is known

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Speaker 3: as early childhood is going to feel quite different. In

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Speaker 3: the Monosaur system, there's one classroom for children ages three

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Speaker 3: to six, which is like pre K three through kindergarten.

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Speaker 3: They're actually all together, and so Genevieve's actually been in

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Speaker 3: the same classroom since I actually think she moved up

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Speaker 3: in twenty twenty, right before we all left school. I

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Speaker 3: think it was like January twenty twenty she got to

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Speaker 3: this new classroom. Then obviously we had a few months off,

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Speaker 3: but we did restart that fall, and she's been in

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Speaker 3: that classroom ever since. That's a really really long time.

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Speaker 3: It hasn't been the same teacher the whole time, but

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Speaker 3: it was the same teacher for two years and then

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Speaker 3: another teacher for two years, and so this is going

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Speaker 3: to be probably like one of the biggest, most seismic

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Speaker 3: shifts we've had in a while, so that's exciting. Her

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Speaker 3: new class will be grades one through three altogether, that's

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Speaker 3: called Lower Elementary. Cameron is in fifth. He really doesn't

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Speaker 3: He's like the only kid who like this is kind

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Speaker 3: of like business as usual, same classroom, same teacher, kind

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Speaker 3: of happy to have somebody that's on autopilot to some extent.

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Speaker 3: And then Annabelle is actually going to a brand new school,

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Speaker 3: which was a decision we made last spring for a

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Speaker 3: few different reasons, and so that is going to have

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Speaker 3: its own set of logistical challenges, just general feelings of newness,

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Speaker 3: and we're really looking forward to it. I think her

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Speaker 3: new school looks very promising and awesome, but obviously that's

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Speaker 3: going to be an adjustment for all of us. We

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Speaker 3: actually haven't really had a new school in the mix

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Speaker 3: for a while either.

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Speaker 1: Now, how far is that school from your other school?

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Speaker 3: Well, luckily enough, they're actually very close together, so they're

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Speaker 3: about there. Will I mean like nine to ten minute

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Speaker 3: drive apart. We'll see what that looks like on actual

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Speaker 3: school days. And geographically it works fairly well in that

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Speaker 3: from her drop off to the other kids school drop

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Speaker 3: off to my work is kind of one linear path,

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Speaker 3: so I think it will work out okay, but ask

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Speaker 3: me in a few weeks.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, no, I was just saying like two drop

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Speaker 2: offs though. I mean, my experience of car lines is

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Speaker 2: they don't always move at the speed one might wish

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Speaker 2: that they would move at.

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Speaker 3: I agree. I'm these are not huge schools, either of them.

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Speaker 3: I have lots of experiences, obviously with the drop off

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Speaker 3: situation in the school where they've been, which is quite streamlined.

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Speaker 3: A lot of times, the best thing to do is

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Speaker 3: avoid the car line because it's a tiny campus and

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Speaker 3: you just park, walk your kid in and get out

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Speaker 3: of there. So at least one out of two is

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Speaker 3: a known and fairly easy commodity, And I mean the

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Speaker 3: other one is it's not a thousand kids or anything

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Speaker 3: like that that are going to be in the middle

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Speaker 3: school drop off line, so I hope it's decent.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, Okay, Well let's fingers crossed for that. Well,

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Speaker 2: let's take a quick ad break and then we'll come

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Speaker 2: back with more on back to school.

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Speaker 3: All right, Well, you heard a lot about my scenario

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Speaker 3: for this year. Laura, You, as usual, have a lot

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Speaker 3: of moving parts. Can you tell our listeners where you

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Speaker 3: guys are all going to be?

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Speaker 2: Yeah, well, we actually only have one child shifting this year.

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Speaker 2: We still have four schools for five kids, but the

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Speaker 2: configuration of who is at which school just changes slightly.

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Speaker 2: But we are not introducing any new schools or anything

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Speaker 2: like that, which is kind of fun, so some continuity.

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Speaker 2: Jasper is going to be in twelfth grade this fall.

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Speaker 2: Sam is going to be in ninth grade, so he

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Speaker 2: will be joining him at the high school. Ruth is

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Speaker 2: going to be in seventh grade, Alex will be in

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Speaker 2: fourth grade, and Henry will be doing his last year

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Speaker 2: of preschool. So it is still a lot of different schools,

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Speaker 2: but the big change for us is that, well, we're

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Speaker 2: doing drop off discussion later, but all our schools start

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Speaker 2: times changed because, as longtime listeners know, we've covered this topic,

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Speaker 2: there's been some considerable research that having high schools start

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Speaker 2: ridiculously early in the morning does nobody any favors. I mean,

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Speaker 2: it may be more convenient for the adults who work there,

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Speaker 2: but for the children who are adolescents, the way their

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Speaker 2: bodies work, it's very hard for them to be up

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Speaker 2: and moving. And so there's some reasonable evidence that kids

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Speaker 2: do better in school, they have higher graduation rates, there's

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Speaker 2: fewer disciplinary issues and all that if high school starts

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Speaker 2: a little bit later. So our district adopted that, but

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Speaker 2: of course that changes everything in terms of the buses

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Speaker 2: and the times that the other schools have to start,

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Speaker 2: and so yeah, we'll be having.

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Speaker 1: To deal with that.

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Speaker 2: But the last year of preschool thing is kind of

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Speaker 2: fun because we've had a kid at this particular preschool

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Speaker 2: since twenty eleven with only one year off.

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Speaker 1: Wow, So it's an end of an era for sure.

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Speaker 3: For sure, they're going to really miss you guys. That's

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Speaker 3: so sad.

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Speaker 1: It is a little sad.

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Speaker 2: I was doing the paperwork for Henry's like setting in

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Speaker 2: all the medical forms and whatever else, the textbook form

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Speaker 2: you have to sign so that the state can provide

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Speaker 2: textbooks to private schools and whatever else, and it was

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Speaker 2: just like, this is the last time I'm signing this form.

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Speaker 3: Wow, end of an era. Indeed, Well, I'm excited that

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Speaker 3: we'll have a lot to talk about in next year's episode.

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Speaker 3: Maybe you'll be crying while we recorded. I don't know,

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Speaker 3: so since you are, we're not going to devote the

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Speaker 3: entire episode to this, but I'm sure we have listeners

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Speaker 3: with kids in a similar age bracket, And I'm just

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Speaker 3: wondering how you're feeling staring down having a senior, and

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Speaker 3: I don't know, like whether you've already started thinking about

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Speaker 3: that and how you're supporting him. We're not going to

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Speaker 3: talk about the college process in detail today because spoiler alert,

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Speaker 3: we have an episode coming up that will be on

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Speaker 3: that topic. But I don't know, give us a little

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Speaker 3: teaser of what that's been like or what you anticipate.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean, well, I'm just playing a supportive role

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Speaker 2: because my son, Jasper is close to being an adult

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Speaker 2: and needs to do his own. You know, the college

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Speaker 2: application process is kind of your first big adult thing

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Speaker 2: that you are doing. I can tell you that it's

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Speaker 2: different from when we are apply to me. For one thing,

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Speaker 2: it's all digital, which is not surprising, but that changed

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Speaker 2: at some point between when you and I went to

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Speaker 2: school and now that the kids these days are applying,

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Speaker 2: the common application is a much bigger thing now, like

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Speaker 2: the number of places that take it, either as is

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Speaker 2: or with a small supplemental individual application process. The common

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Speaker 2: app opens like August first. We're recording this right at

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Speaker 2: the beginning of August, and so today he's getting together

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Speaker 2: with a friend to go through and manage their common

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Speaker 2: app stuff, to gather checking how each of them are

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Speaker 2: doing it.

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Speaker 1: And I happen to know he's.

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Speaker 2: Got everything mostly put together, accept the teacher recommendations which

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Speaker 2: he put in his requests for and all that. Obviously

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Speaker 2: they probably weren't doing all of it in August, so

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Speaker 2: he may have to wait till the start of the

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Speaker 2: school year to collect those. But yeah, I mean, I

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Speaker 2: am excited for him. As a practical matter, one of

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Speaker 2: our state universities has rolling in missions, and so he's

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Speaker 2: just going to get his application into that as soon

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Speaker 2: as possible, hopefully get a decision within a few weeks

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Speaker 2: of that submission. Fingers crossed that would work out. But

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Speaker 2: then that will just make senior year a lot less

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Speaker 2: tense in the sense that he is welcome to apply

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Speaker 2: anywhere else that he wishes to.

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Speaker 1: But having that.

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Speaker 2: Hopeful admission in hand will mean that whatever else happens,

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Speaker 2: we have a good option. And that is great because

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Speaker 2: I think senior year winds up getting consumed often by

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Speaker 2: this whole college thing, and it's still a wonderful year

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Speaker 2: and it's own right that shouldn't be written off.

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Speaker 1: So that's my take.

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Speaker 3: That is so true, and I like that the idea

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Speaker 3: of taking the heat off that first admission. I still remember,

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Speaker 3: like my first med school admission, my first It's true

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Speaker 3: because you're like, okay, all right, Like whatever else happens,

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Speaker 3: we're good. Like that's it's very important, and that would

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Speaker 3: be wonderful for him. So rooting for that to work out,

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Speaker 3: all right, Well, we're going to dive into drop off

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Speaker 3: and pick up. I know this sounds dry, and yet

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Speaker 3: I feel like when I listen to other people's logistical discussions,

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Speaker 3: I often get ideas or I'll be like, oh, you

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Speaker 3: can do that, and so we're going to go there.

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Speaker 3: I guess, do you want to go first?

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Speaker 1: Yeah, you can go, you can go. I'm men go.

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Speaker 3: Okay, Well, mine's less exciting because you have some drivers

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Speaker 3: and I do not. So I will just note that

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Speaker 3: we plan on Josh and I doing the bulk of

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Speaker 3: the morning driving. I will likely drive on the days

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Speaker 3: that I have clinical patients because I do believe that

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Speaker 3: I can get there. I mean, it's just a good

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Speaker 3: location for me to be able to drop off both

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Speaker 3: kids on my way, and I'd rather have those child

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Speaker 3: care hours for later since my kids are doing so

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Speaker 3: many evening activities. I actually think our nanny may prefer

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Speaker 3: this as well. I think she's gotten used to not

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Speaker 3: coming in super early. I make her extra coffee.

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Speaker 1: When she does.

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Speaker 3: But the schedule works for her as well. And so

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Speaker 3: that'll be three to four days of me driving and

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Speaker 3: one to two days of Josh driving. He's a little

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Speaker 3: bit more flexible one day of the week, and we'll

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Speaker 3: see if we can make it work. Probably on a

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Speaker 3: rare occasion, if both of us are early er, one

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Speaker 3: of us is out of town or something like that,

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Speaker 3: then she would step in, come in a little bit

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Speaker 3: earlier and then the afternoon will generally be her picking

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Speaker 3: up similar to the drop off, it'll kind of be

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Speaker 3: going from one school to another. And the only challenge

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Speaker 3: that I see here is that I think our mornings

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Speaker 3: are going to have to start significantly earlier than they

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Speaker 3: did last year. We could get away with leaving at

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Speaker 3: seven to forty five last year and kind of be okay.

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Speaker 3: It actually wasn't ideal for me from a work perspective,

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Speaker 3: like I'd be kind of like right on the borderline

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Speaker 3: of like my first patient's already roomed and I'm rushing

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Speaker 3: in there, and I don't love that. I like to

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Speaker 3: be like, oh, and I'm like very very like to

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Speaker 3: run on time. So if my patient's ready at eight thirty,

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Speaker 3: I want to be in the room at eight thirty one,

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Speaker 3: not eight thirty seven. So I anticipate we're gonna have

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Speaker 3: to leave more like seven twenty five, maybe even seven

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Speaker 3: twenty for this to be realistic with the double drop off,

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Speaker 3: And so I think this is going to be rough

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Speaker 3: for the kids and for me a little bit because

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Speaker 3: I love to run in the morning, and that means

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Speaker 3: that a lot of times I'm bursting through the door

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Speaker 3: at seven and that probably isn't gonna work. So I'm

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Speaker 3: gonna have to really work backwards and think about this.

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Speaker 3: And really this all goes back to bedtime, because you

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Speaker 3: have to get enough sleep if you're going to get

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Speaker 3: enough up earlier for the kids. And yet we have

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Speaker 3: the challenge of some later evening activities as we'll talk about.

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Speaker 3: So yeah, I mean, I think there's going to be

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Speaker 3: a learning curve. Now, do the schools the two schools

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Speaker 3: start at enough different times that it works to have

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Speaker 3: the two drop offs, because that's of course always the issue.

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Speaker 2: If you've got like two schools that start at nine

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Speaker 2: o'clock or something like that, Yeah, then you have a problem.

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Speaker 3: They do, And we know other families with the same

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Speaker 3: exact combination of schools who I've done this before, because

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Speaker 3: it's not terribly uncommon, especially because the younger kids school

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Speaker 3: only goes to eighth grade and the other school goes

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Speaker 3: to twelfth grade. So it's kind of a done thing.

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Speaker 3: And there's enough of a range for Genevieve and Cameron

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Speaker 3: that I think will be okay. Annabel is the one

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Speaker 3: that's going to have the more strict but she's going

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Speaker 3: to be first.

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Speaker 1: She's the first.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, so of the other twour slightly later, it's not

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Speaker 2: the end of the world. Then, okay, all right, got it?

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Speaker 3: Got it? So what about you guys? You have a driver.

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Speaker 2: I do have a driver, and more importantly a parking pass,

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Speaker 2: because having your license does nothing if there's nowhere to

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Speaker 2: leave your car during the day, and it's you know,

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Speaker 2: sometimes I find I.

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Speaker 1: Love where I live.

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Speaker 2: But there are also all the neighborhoods around the high

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Speaker 2: school have giant no parking anytime signs on the street

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Speaker 2: that they have I guess forgot their own on street

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Speaker 2: parking privileges to make sure that no student would ever

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Speaker 2: dare park in front of their house, which is just nuts,

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Speaker 2: but anyway, so it coast. We did manage to get

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Speaker 2: a parking spot at the high school. So the plan

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Speaker 2: is that Jasper and Sam will drive there to gather

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Speaker 2: in the morning. I think the coming home will be

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Speaker 2: a little bit more unclear. Jasper obviously will drive himself

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Speaker 2: because he has the car there, but Sam has different

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Speaker 2: activities than Jasper does, so we'll just sort of take

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Speaker 2: that day by day and make sure that the two

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Speaker 2: of them touch base at some point. If there is

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Speaker 2: any lack of clarity, about who is coming home when

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Speaker 2: the high school is actually going to be starting at

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Speaker 2: eight thirty this year, so that will be significantly later

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Speaker 2: than the seven.

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Speaker 1: Thirty start last year.

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Speaker 2: So last year Jasper would take off usually with Michael,

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Speaker 2: at seven o'clock to get there. This year, that will

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Speaker 2: not be happening. Obviously, nobody needs to leave for seven

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Speaker 2: o'clock for the high school, so I assume that he

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Speaker 2: and Sam will leave around eight o'clock, which is obviously

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Speaker 2: a much later time. They probably won't have to get

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Speaker 2: up till seven thirty around then, which of course means

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Speaker 2: they'll want to stay up later, which we'll figure out

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Speaker 2: how that gets managed. The middle school, sadly enough, moved

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Speaker 2: earlier because you have only one set of buses and

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Speaker 2: bus drivers, and so things had to move around. Now

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Speaker 2: it didn't move by much. It used to start at

396
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Speaker 2: eight fifteen, and now it starts at eight. However, Ruth

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Speaker 2: has been playing in the jazz band, which historically has

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Speaker 2: met before school, so.

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Speaker 1: We shall see.

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Speaker 2: I assume one of us is going to be driving

401
00:20:47,800 --> 00:20:51,960
Speaker 2: her a lot of mornings, and that means that we'll

402
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Speaker 2: be getting up not too much later than we had

403
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Speaker 2: been before, given that the times have moved. It's just

404
00:20:58,480 --> 00:21:01,160
Speaker 2: you know, different kids and different things. The elementary school

405
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Speaker 2: now doesn't start till nine ten, which is again it's

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Speaker 2: the buses.

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Speaker 3: But I hope that I think we will offer early

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Speaker 3: care for family set. Do they offer early care for

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Speaker 3: families that need it?

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Speaker 2: There is there is before care and after care that

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Speaker 2: I believe you can get on the list for and

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Speaker 2: pay for. We have never done that, so I don't

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Speaker 2: know how competitive it is to get into it, but yeah,

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Speaker 2: because nine ten is just ridiculous. Like I mean, if

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Speaker 2: you get your kid on the bus at eight forty,

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Speaker 2: I mean I guess that you could then take off

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Speaker 2: after that. But anyway, we'll probably be our nanny will

418
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Speaker 2: likely be driving Alex and Henry to school in the

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Speaker 2: morning because Henry has to get driven.

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Speaker 1: His school will start at nine, but he's going full

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Speaker 1: day this year.

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Speaker 2: He's going nine to three, so that'll be a change

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Speaker 2: for him. And then the reverse, I say, you know,

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Speaker 2: somebody will pick up henrye. We'll do some pickups of Ruth.

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Speaker 2: I'm not sure how this because we'll have the childcare,

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Speaker 2: I think, and then Alex will see maybe he'll take

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Speaker 2: the bus home, maybe he'll get picked up unclear.

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Speaker 1: Bus tends to.

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Speaker 2: Be a bit of a unknown craziness chaotic and he

430
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Speaker 2: doesn't always do well with a slightly more chaotic backgrounds.

431
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Speaker 2: But and then yeah, the older kid's getting home either bus,

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Speaker 2: activity bus.

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Speaker 1: I love the activity bus. The activity bus is amazing.

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Speaker 2: You know, our district has at least in the past

435
00:22:29,760 --> 00:22:33,199
Speaker 2: had two runs of buses in post school time for

436
00:22:33,200 --> 00:22:34,960
Speaker 2: the middle school in high school. And it just takes

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Speaker 2: you home so the kid can stay after for an activity.

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Speaker 3: That is amazing. Does the activity bus go to like

439
00:22:40,520 --> 00:22:45,360
Speaker 3: every stop the regular bus goes to or is it like.

440
00:22:44,280 --> 00:22:44,840
Speaker 1: It does not?

441
00:22:45,480 --> 00:22:50,680
Speaker 2: However ours does like the stop that is the activity

442
00:22:50,680 --> 00:22:52,960
Speaker 2: bus made is the same one that the regular bus

443
00:22:53,000 --> 00:22:56,320
Speaker 2: would make. Amazing, And my general sense is that it

444
00:22:56,400 --> 00:23:00,119
Speaker 2: operated slightly more like a taxi service if there weren't

445
00:23:00,160 --> 00:23:02,320
Speaker 2: that many kids on it, so that the driver was

446
00:23:02,359 --> 00:23:05,840
Speaker 2: willing to drop you off kind of wherever you asked

447
00:23:06,480 --> 00:23:10,880
Speaker 2: on his route, So if you passed near your house,

448
00:23:11,160 --> 00:23:13,040
Speaker 2: he's not going to make you go like three blocks

449
00:23:13,040 --> 00:23:14,240
Speaker 2: away to be dropped off.

450
00:23:14,840 --> 00:23:17,000
Speaker 3: That is amazing. That is great, And I mean I

451
00:23:17,040 --> 00:23:18,639
Speaker 3: feel like bussing must have come a while. I mean,

452
00:23:18,680 --> 00:23:21,040
Speaker 3: can't you like track the buses now on apps and stuff.

453
00:23:22,200 --> 00:23:24,159
Speaker 1: I think, well, you probably can't.

454
00:23:24,240 --> 00:23:26,720
Speaker 2: Well we know, Okay, so I got the bus app

455
00:23:27,080 --> 00:23:29,840
Speaker 2: and it was never updated, like, it was never quite right,

456
00:23:30,520 --> 00:23:32,439
Speaker 2: like it would say, my bus is on time, and

457
00:23:32,520 --> 00:23:34,720
Speaker 2: I'm like sitting there waiting for Alex. It's clearly ten

458
00:23:34,720 --> 00:23:37,320
Speaker 2: minutes late. So it was like not in real time

459
00:23:37,440 --> 00:23:42,920
Speaker 2: being updated. That said, I mean, my older kids have

460
00:23:43,040 --> 00:23:47,480
Speaker 2: devices on them that have more real time data, so

461
00:23:47,520 --> 00:23:49,280
Speaker 2: if I'm trying to figure out where on Earth they are,

462
00:23:50,080 --> 00:23:52,439
Speaker 2: that's obviously a more direct way.

463
00:23:52,280 --> 00:23:52,719
Speaker 1: Of doing it.

464
00:23:53,080 --> 00:23:55,040
Speaker 3: Well, that's very odd that you can track your Uber

465
00:23:55,080 --> 00:23:57,480
Speaker 3: Eats delivery but not your school bus.

466
00:23:57,320 --> 00:23:58,320
Speaker 1: Not your kid's bus.

467
00:23:58,560 --> 00:24:00,720
Speaker 2: I'm sure, yeah, I don't know, probably is a way

468
00:24:00,720 --> 00:24:03,439
Speaker 2: to do it, but yeah, yeah, too funny.

469
00:24:03,720 --> 00:24:05,320
Speaker 3: All right, Well should we take a quick break before

470
00:24:05,359 --> 00:24:06,240
Speaker 3: we go to lunches?

471
00:24:06,760 --> 00:24:08,160
Speaker 1: All right, one more quick ad break.

472
00:24:20,680 --> 00:24:23,400
Speaker 2: All right, Well we are back talking all things back

473
00:24:23,400 --> 00:24:26,640
Speaker 2: to school, a perennial favorite topic. So many logistics as

474
00:24:26,640 --> 00:24:29,560
Speaker 2: we figure out, especially with larger families with lots of

475
00:24:29,600 --> 00:24:32,439
Speaker 2: school aged kids, figuring out how everything works.

476
00:24:32,880 --> 00:24:35,800
Speaker 1: Let's talk about lunch, Sarah.

477
00:24:35,960 --> 00:24:38,400
Speaker 3: I know, I'm like, I know, we've had this discussion before,

478
00:24:38,840 --> 00:24:40,840
Speaker 3: and yet every year I sort of have to think

479
00:24:40,880 --> 00:24:43,200
Speaker 3: about it. And this year we have some new stuff,

480
00:24:43,240 --> 00:24:46,960
Speaker 3: which is that everyone gets included lunch at out of

481
00:24:46,960 --> 00:24:49,879
Speaker 3: our schools. So that's great, one less lunch to deal with.

482
00:24:49,960 --> 00:24:51,520
Speaker 3: Except she was the only kid that was packing her

483
00:24:51,520 --> 00:24:54,639
Speaker 3: own lunch consistently. So actually that doesn't really change, but

484
00:24:54,720 --> 00:25:00,960
Speaker 3: doesn't no wins there, correct. Yeah, see us like changing

485
00:25:01,080 --> 00:25:03,400
Speaker 3: very much. I just like being super super simple, like

486
00:25:03,760 --> 00:25:06,800
Speaker 3: our nannie does help pack lunch generally Tuesday through Friday,

487
00:25:06,960 --> 00:25:10,720
Speaker 3: and my classic Monday lunch is to just put one

488
00:25:10,720 --> 00:25:13,320
Speaker 3: of the Trader Joe's pre done salads in the bag

489
00:25:13,400 --> 00:25:15,400
Speaker 3: and a couple snacks and call it today. My kids

490
00:25:15,440 --> 00:25:18,480
Speaker 3: are not super picky, so they will actually happily eat

491
00:25:18,520 --> 00:25:22,200
Speaker 3: like Caesar salad with chicken from Trader Joe's, and it's

492
00:25:22,240 --> 00:25:23,160
Speaker 3: like done.

493
00:25:23,400 --> 00:25:26,000
Speaker 2: It's pressing the easy button. So you just pick those

494
00:25:26,080 --> 00:25:27,880
Speaker 2: up when you do, like your Saturday shopping trip.

495
00:25:28,240 --> 00:25:30,760
Speaker 3: I usually shop on Sunday, so that's exactly, and then

496
00:25:30,760 --> 00:25:32,600
Speaker 3: I get usually get a couple for me too, so

497
00:25:32,640 --> 00:25:36,080
Speaker 3: that's often like my Monday and Wednesday work lunch as well,

498
00:25:36,480 --> 00:25:38,199
Speaker 3: and just anything I don't have to think about it.

499
00:25:38,240 --> 00:25:40,480
Speaker 3: If I like it, then we're good. I could see

500
00:25:40,520 --> 00:25:42,320
Speaker 3: them getting tired of it. But I'm sure Trader Joe's

501
00:25:42,320 --> 00:25:44,879
Speaker 3: has some other pre made standbys that we could pivot to.

502
00:25:45,359 --> 00:25:49,000
Speaker 2: Yes, exactly, you'll never run out of TJ's pre made

503
00:25:49,200 --> 00:25:52,880
Speaker 2: lunch phenomenon. And I hear you have a water bottle hack.

504
00:25:52,960 --> 00:25:55,320
Speaker 2: Modern children like to be hydrated, So where are you

505
00:25:55,359 --> 00:25:56,920
Speaker 2: getting your water bottles these days?

506
00:25:57,240 --> 00:26:00,720
Speaker 3: Oh geez, Well, we also have the best spoke water

507
00:26:00,800 --> 00:26:05,600
Speaker 3: bottle collection of one child, including the limited edition Olivia

508
00:26:05,680 --> 00:26:09,159
Speaker 3: Rodrigo Stanley that we had to enter a lottery to

509
00:26:09,240 --> 00:26:12,800
Speaker 3: purchase and it has its own little shrine and it's adorable.

510
00:26:13,240 --> 00:26:15,399
Speaker 3: But I also have a hot tip, which is that

511
00:26:15,840 --> 00:26:18,680
Speaker 3: ross Like the discount store has really good water bottles,

512
00:26:18,680 --> 00:26:21,680
Speaker 3: Like I feel like they must be last seasons designer

513
00:26:21,720 --> 00:26:24,080
Speaker 3: water bottles, but like, who cares? So we got we

514
00:26:24,119 --> 00:26:26,560
Speaker 3: got like a nice like Columbia one and an Adida's one,

515
00:26:26,560 --> 00:26:29,800
Speaker 3: and they look nice and they were like half the

516
00:26:29,800 --> 00:26:31,640
Speaker 3: price that you would normally pay for these things, because

517
00:26:31,680 --> 00:26:35,440
Speaker 3: water bottles have gotten quite trendy and expensive.

518
00:26:36,240 --> 00:26:39,160
Speaker 2: Yeah, there's a huge problem here, like with the idea

519
00:26:39,160 --> 00:26:41,280
Speaker 2: of a reusable water bottle that you're buying to be

520
00:26:41,320 --> 00:26:43,920
Speaker 2: more sustainable, but you buy a new one every time

521
00:26:44,000 --> 00:26:44,400
Speaker 2: there's a.

522
00:26:46,800 --> 00:26:50,200
Speaker 1: Like the trend changes. I mean, anyway, it's.

523
00:26:50,040 --> 00:26:53,879
Speaker 2: Probably slightly better than having a disposable water But I

524
00:26:53,920 --> 00:26:56,520
Speaker 2: refill my disposable water bottles like I just rints them

525
00:26:56,520 --> 00:26:58,719
Speaker 2: out and reuse them like for weeks on end.

526
00:26:58,840 --> 00:27:04,159
Speaker 3: So not entirely sure, that's like my grocery bag thing.

527
00:27:04,200 --> 00:27:06,520
Speaker 3: I'm like, I just used the paper ones like thirty

528
00:27:06,560 --> 00:27:08,400
Speaker 3: times and then yeah, exactly.

529
00:27:08,400 --> 00:27:11,639
Speaker 2: Exactly, like yeah, you know, hot tip. Many disposable items

530
00:27:11,640 --> 00:27:14,240
Speaker 2: are not quite as disposable as we are often led

531
00:27:14,280 --> 00:27:18,000
Speaker 2: to believe. I say, my older three will keep buying.

532
00:27:18,240 --> 00:27:22,040
Speaker 2: This is not necessarily as economical an option as I

533
00:27:22,080 --> 00:27:24,800
Speaker 2: remember from like my days of buying school lunch, I

534
00:27:24,840 --> 00:27:27,040
Speaker 2: mean partly just inflation of thirty years. But you know,

535
00:27:27,760 --> 00:27:30,080
Speaker 2: they have more options, like the high school cafeteria has

536
00:27:30,119 --> 00:27:32,359
Speaker 2: all sorts of a La Karte options, like much like

537
00:27:32,400 --> 00:27:37,600
Speaker 2: going to a corporate cafeteria, So I have not limited that.

538
00:27:38,280 --> 00:27:40,760
Speaker 2: I feel like, if you are choosing healthy things, I'm

539
00:27:40,800 --> 00:27:43,360
Speaker 2: not going to sit here and micro manage your lunch choices.

540
00:27:43,400 --> 00:27:45,280
Speaker 1: But I do know that Jasper buys the.

541
00:27:45,560 --> 00:27:49,920
Speaker 2: Very expensive strawberry cut up fruit every day, and much

542
00:27:49,960 --> 00:27:51,720
Speaker 2: as in the airport, that tends to be the most

543
00:27:51,760 --> 00:27:56,280
Speaker 2: expensive produce option. So Alex and Henry are going to

544
00:27:56,320 --> 00:27:59,639
Speaker 2: need lunches. We're going to have to figure out how

545
00:27:59,680 --> 00:28:03,560
Speaker 2: to do that. Alex theoretically is making his own lunch,

546
00:28:03,680 --> 00:28:07,120
Speaker 2: being older than eight years old. However, he does need

547
00:28:07,160 --> 00:28:09,960
Speaker 2: a lot of supervision, as he will literally just put

548
00:28:10,040 --> 00:28:12,800
Speaker 2: one sleeve of crackers in a bag and call it

549
00:28:12,840 --> 00:28:14,119
Speaker 2: a day.

550
00:28:14,320 --> 00:28:17,040
Speaker 1: So what, I.

551
00:28:17,000 --> 00:28:20,760
Speaker 3: Think that's so funny and also like, I mean, not

552
00:28:20,880 --> 00:28:24,480
Speaker 3: the best, not the worst. Maybe you know, it's like,

553
00:28:24,520 --> 00:28:26,640
Speaker 3: can you at least throw a yogurt in there?

554
00:28:27,359 --> 00:28:30,119
Speaker 2: Some cheese to go with those crackers's and crackers like

555
00:28:30,200 --> 00:28:32,960
Speaker 2: cheese and crackers and raisins. I mean, yes, Grace, it's

556
00:28:33,000 --> 00:28:36,399
Speaker 2: like a hiking thing that you'd bring with you. But

557
00:28:36,480 --> 00:28:39,640
Speaker 2: I guess that's totally fine.

558
00:28:39,200 --> 00:28:41,680
Speaker 3: With his lunch as being very repetitive. Could you do

559
00:28:41,800 --> 00:28:44,440
Speaker 3: like all the whole week at once, like put five

560
00:28:44,560 --> 00:28:47,000
Speaker 3: assembled bags like in the fridge?

561
00:28:47,040 --> 00:28:47,480
Speaker 1: Maybe?

562
00:28:47,800 --> 00:28:50,000
Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean we could, you know, he could totally

563
00:28:50,000 --> 00:28:52,480
Speaker 2: do that. Well, I'll bring it up with him. I mean,

564
00:28:52,520 --> 00:28:55,280
Speaker 2: I it doesn't take that much time, given how modular

565
00:28:55,320 --> 00:28:58,520
Speaker 2: it is like to throw a pre like a cheese stick,

566
00:28:58,680 --> 00:29:02,720
Speaker 2: a sleeve of crackers, a thing of raisins like a

567
00:29:02,800 --> 00:29:07,120
Speaker 2: yogurt in a bag is not a huge thing.

568
00:29:07,440 --> 00:29:09,560
Speaker 3: That's also not the worst lunch, by the way. I mean,

569
00:29:09,600 --> 00:29:11,240
Speaker 3: he's got like a lot of food groups. There's at

570
00:29:11,280 --> 00:29:16,000
Speaker 3: least some protein in there. And raisins are fruit reasons

571
00:29:16,080 --> 00:29:18,920
Speaker 3: are fruit there just dried fruit. And we also do

572
00:29:18,920 --> 00:29:21,360
Speaker 3: apple sauce packets sometimes, you know, as a way to

573
00:29:21,360 --> 00:29:26,160
Speaker 3: get a little bit of extra fruit type substance into

574
00:29:26,200 --> 00:29:28,760
Speaker 3: the child. Henry, I mean, I would like to figure

575
00:29:28,760 --> 00:29:30,440
Speaker 3: out something I was a little healthier because he will

576
00:29:30,480 --> 00:29:31,080
Speaker 3: eat food.

577
00:29:31,840 --> 00:29:34,720
Speaker 2: But yeah, I don't know. I mean, the problem of

578
00:29:34,760 --> 00:29:37,760
Speaker 2: being the kid behind the kid that has some more

579
00:29:37,800 --> 00:29:39,920
Speaker 2: limitations is that you wind up pretty much eating the

580
00:29:39,920 --> 00:29:43,320
Speaker 2: same thing because people just make the same stuff for

581
00:29:43,360 --> 00:29:45,560
Speaker 2: the two of them. We'll see, we'll see how this

582
00:29:45,640 --> 00:29:48,800
Speaker 2: all turns out. How about back to school stopping You

583
00:29:49,240 --> 00:29:51,680
Speaker 2: guys have already been doing that. I assume, given that

584
00:29:51,680 --> 00:29:55,120
Speaker 2: we're recording this shortly before you guys go back to school, we've.

585
00:29:54,960 --> 00:29:56,200
Speaker 3: Done a lot of it. I mean I do a

586
00:29:56,240 --> 00:29:59,240
Speaker 3: lot of it online, and the kids are more likely

587
00:29:59,280 --> 00:30:00,840
Speaker 3: to just send me a link to something they want,

588
00:30:00,880 --> 00:30:02,480
Speaker 3: and if it seems reasonable, I can check it off

589
00:30:02,520 --> 00:30:04,320
Speaker 3: the list. I did make a big master list of

590
00:30:04,360 --> 00:30:07,440
Speaker 3: all the stuff that we needed and that was helpful.

591
00:30:07,720 --> 00:30:10,440
Speaker 3: We have uniforms and that's all done. I have to

592
00:30:10,480 --> 00:30:14,360
Speaker 3: share that Annifl's school has this very specific dress code

593
00:30:14,400 --> 00:30:18,360
Speaker 3: of shorts must be six point five inches or more

594
00:30:18,360 --> 00:30:22,160
Speaker 3: in en seam, and I'm like, point five, what's it?

595
00:30:22,240 --> 00:30:23,080
Speaker 1: The point five?

596
00:30:25,760 --> 00:30:28,720
Speaker 3: But you know what, we procure them. They're also a

597
00:30:28,760 --> 00:30:31,480
Speaker 3: lot of wear joggers, so that's comfy and nice. And

598
00:30:31,840 --> 00:30:33,880
Speaker 3: I will say my one new discovery this year was

599
00:30:33,920 --> 00:30:36,200
Speaker 3: the company Primary, which I feel like I've heard about

600
00:30:36,200 --> 00:30:38,280
Speaker 3: on other podcasts and stuff, but I had never shopped there.

601
00:30:38,560 --> 00:30:40,960
Speaker 3: Genevieve tends to be very picky about uniform bottoms, like

602
00:30:41,000 --> 00:30:42,640
Speaker 3: I'll buy her the cute little skirts and she won't

603
00:30:42,640 --> 00:30:45,160
Speaker 3: wear them. She'll only want to wear the little cartwheel

604
00:30:45,480 --> 00:30:49,280
Speaker 3: bike shorts, and so she's not really supposed to wear

605
00:30:49,320 --> 00:30:52,880
Speaker 3: bike shorts. And since she's entering this more official grade level,

606
00:30:52,920 --> 00:30:55,120
Speaker 3: I was like, Okay, let's get some actual shorts. And

607
00:30:56,360 --> 00:30:59,280
Speaker 3: Primary has like they're like gym shorts. They're not fancy,

608
00:30:59,320 --> 00:31:02,800
Speaker 3: but they're like nice like cottony feeling material and stretchy,

609
00:31:03,000 --> 00:31:06,120
Speaker 3: and she seemed to tolerate them more than most other

610
00:31:06,480 --> 00:31:09,720
Speaker 3: more uniform like pieces. So it's my uniform tip.

611
00:31:10,120 --> 00:31:10,440
Speaker 1: Yep.

612
00:31:11,280 --> 00:31:14,120
Speaker 2: Yeah, shoes are always the thing, and I just have

613
00:31:14,200 --> 00:31:16,800
Speaker 2: the older boys like pick out stuff online and I

614
00:31:16,920 --> 00:31:18,840
Speaker 2: buy it and like half a size larger than what

615
00:31:18,880 --> 00:31:25,280
Speaker 2: they're wearing. Ruths feet are an unorthodox size, like we

616
00:31:25,400 --> 00:31:29,320
Speaker 2: have to uh, you know, and then she finds some

617
00:31:29,360 --> 00:31:32,520
Speaker 2: shoes uncomfortable. So it's a bit of a process finding

618
00:31:32,520 --> 00:31:36,160
Speaker 2: shoes for her, but it provides an opportunity. You have

619
00:31:36,200 --> 00:31:38,800
Speaker 2: a discussion about how we sometimes make do with things

620
00:31:38,800 --> 00:31:41,520
Speaker 2: that aren't perfect but are better than what we currently have,

621
00:31:41,880 --> 00:31:44,240
Speaker 2: and sometimes, you know, we can always be on the

622
00:31:44,280 --> 00:31:49,240
Speaker 2: lookout for better options, but need at least something. Yeah,

623
00:31:49,400 --> 00:31:51,960
Speaker 2: we don't have uniforms because obviously we're in public school.

624
00:31:51,960 --> 00:31:54,440
Speaker 2: Although I guess some public schools have uniforms, so maybe

625
00:31:54,440 --> 00:31:55,920
Speaker 2: that's not the case.

626
00:31:55,680 --> 00:31:56,720
Speaker 1: But we do not.

627
00:31:57,640 --> 00:32:01,120
Speaker 2: Jasper will probably be getting some clothes. I noticed one

628
00:32:01,160 --> 00:32:02,840
Speaker 2: of his favorite shirts had a giant hole in the

629
00:32:02,880 --> 00:32:06,280
Speaker 2: elbow yesterday. But Sam and Alex may mostly he likes

630
00:32:06,280 --> 00:32:10,160
Speaker 2: some Oh that what's that? The black dog is like

631
00:32:10,200 --> 00:32:14,480
Speaker 2: one of those uh stores that's in like North.

632
00:32:17,520 --> 00:32:19,760
Speaker 3: It's like Martha's Vineyard or Martha's Vineyard.

633
00:32:19,800 --> 00:32:21,760
Speaker 2: Yeah, so it's like Vineyard Vines but a little bit

634
00:32:21,920 --> 00:32:26,080
Speaker 2: less pricey, but similar type style. So he owns a

635
00:32:26,120 --> 00:32:28,920
Speaker 2: lot of things from there, and then we just buy

636
00:32:29,160 --> 00:32:34,000
Speaker 2: jeans and his size. Sam and Alex may mostly shop

637
00:32:34,240 --> 00:32:39,440
Speaker 2: in the hand me downs of the older boy. The

638
00:32:39,480 --> 00:32:44,560
Speaker 2: one issue with that is that Alex likes sweatpants mostly,

639
00:32:44,640 --> 00:32:48,440
Speaker 2: and sweatpants do not pass down at all.

640
00:32:48,560 --> 00:32:49,240
Speaker 1: That doesn't work.

641
00:32:49,320 --> 00:32:52,640
Speaker 2: The elastic comes out of the waistband, it gets crusty,

642
00:32:52,880 --> 00:32:56,240
Speaker 2: like its county like, it doesn't hold its elasticity, and

643
00:32:56,280 --> 00:32:58,960
Speaker 2: they get holes in the knees. So we'll have to

644
00:32:59,080 --> 00:33:04,760
Speaker 2: purchase for that. But you know, you win, Sammy loose

645
00:33:04,760 --> 00:33:07,000
Speaker 2: and we now have like little boy black dress shoes

646
00:33:07,080 --> 00:33:09,200
Speaker 2: in every single size.

647
00:33:09,320 --> 00:33:10,160
Speaker 1: So there you go.

648
00:33:11,120 --> 00:33:13,360
Speaker 2: And oh well, we'll do a quick PSA for We

649
00:33:13,440 --> 00:33:16,360
Speaker 2: had this as a question a while ago of like

650
00:33:16,440 --> 00:33:20,080
Speaker 2: what you need in a school emergency supply kit, things

651
00:33:20,120 --> 00:33:22,720
Speaker 2: that you tend to get asked for last minute. So

652
00:33:22,760 --> 00:33:24,320
Speaker 2: while you're doing your shopping, you might want to get

653
00:33:24,360 --> 00:33:27,480
Speaker 2: some poster board because that often comes up. You could

654
00:33:27,480 --> 00:33:30,040
Speaker 2: do yourself a favor and buy a trifold or poster

655
00:33:30,120 --> 00:33:32,080
Speaker 2: board or two if a child has some sort of

656
00:33:32,400 --> 00:33:34,920
Speaker 2: science project that they are going to need to present.

657
00:33:35,480 --> 00:33:39,160
Speaker 2: And we have also found that white t shirts get

658
00:33:39,200 --> 00:33:41,880
Speaker 2: requested for various things like that. You know, if they

659
00:33:41,880 --> 00:33:43,760
Speaker 2: have a show that they all need to be wearing white,

660
00:33:43,800 --> 00:33:45,880
Speaker 2: that's something that may come up.

661
00:33:46,440 --> 00:33:49,160
Speaker 1: Or people do taid eye projects or things like that.

662
00:33:50,240 --> 00:33:54,560
Speaker 3: That's fun, all right, Well, yes, stock up the poster awards.

663
00:33:54,600 --> 00:33:56,400
Speaker 3: Totally agree. I think we still have a few more.

664
00:33:56,440 --> 00:33:58,720
Speaker 3: I'll have to check on my stash. We're going to

665
00:33:58,800 --> 00:34:01,680
Speaker 3: do a brief discussion activities because Lauren says.

666
00:34:01,520 --> 00:34:03,120
Speaker 1: Say this is gonna be the endless episode.

667
00:34:03,280 --> 00:34:05,880
Speaker 3: No, you wrote something like I cannot deal with activities

668
00:34:05,960 --> 00:34:10,160
Speaker 3: yet I'm taking it one weekend time or something like that.

669
00:34:10,760 --> 00:34:13,799
Speaker 2: Yeah, but you have become a travel sports parent and

670
00:34:13,840 --> 00:34:16,160
Speaker 2: a competitive gymnastics parent.

671
00:34:16,840 --> 00:34:20,000
Speaker 3: That happened. I feel like there's probably a prior episode

672
00:34:20,000 --> 00:34:21,759
Speaker 3: where I was like, I'm not going to do this,

673
00:34:21,920 --> 00:34:24,120
Speaker 3: and then like we tried it and we liked it,

674
00:34:24,160 --> 00:34:27,239
Speaker 3: and the kids liked it, and now we've got for

675
00:34:27,360 --> 00:34:31,760
Speaker 3: next year like two sports with like a competition traveling

676
00:34:32,000 --> 00:34:36,279
Speaker 3: whatever element and I'm excited about it, for better or

677
00:34:36,360 --> 00:34:39,400
Speaker 3: for worse. You know, the funny thing that I always

678
00:34:39,400 --> 00:34:41,440
Speaker 3: hear people saying is like it will mess up our

679
00:34:41,480 --> 00:34:44,359
Speaker 3: family dinner. But you guys know, I've discussed this. We

680
00:34:44,400 --> 00:34:46,600
Speaker 3: don't have a good family like it's never been a

681
00:34:46,640 --> 00:34:50,560
Speaker 3: reality for us to do a regular weeknight family dinner,

682
00:34:51,000 --> 00:34:54,320
Speaker 3: mostly because Josh is not home reliably and on time

683
00:34:54,360 --> 00:34:58,000
Speaker 3: for that, and so we're not actually losing much when

684
00:34:58,000 --> 00:35:00,520
Speaker 3: it comes to that timeframe. I'm a little worried because

685
00:35:00,520 --> 00:35:04,399
Speaker 3: this year's stuff often goes till eight forty five, which

686
00:35:04,440 --> 00:35:06,920
Speaker 3: is like my bedtime. But you know what, again, we

687
00:35:07,000 --> 00:35:09,959
Speaker 3: will figure that out. I am happy that my kids

688
00:35:10,040 --> 00:35:13,359
Speaker 3: want to do things, and as long as they find

689
00:35:13,400 --> 00:35:16,520
Speaker 3: them fun, I am happy to support them in their endeavors.

690
00:35:16,960 --> 00:35:17,319
Speaker 3: The end.

691
00:35:18,280 --> 00:35:18,600
Speaker 1: Yeah.

692
00:35:18,719 --> 00:35:23,480
Speaker 2: No, I think some wise people have said that for parenting,

693
00:35:23,520 --> 00:35:26,520
Speaker 2: you should not say I would never do X, because

694
00:35:26,520 --> 00:35:28,799
Speaker 2: your kids are about to never like someone has never

695
00:35:28,920 --> 00:35:31,839
Speaker 2: never before, Like they're going to be into whatever it

696
00:35:31,920 --> 00:35:34,480
Speaker 2: is that you have said you will never do so.

697
00:35:36,120 --> 00:35:39,480
Speaker 1: Within reason, obviously, but you probably want to.

698
00:35:39,360 --> 00:35:42,240
Speaker 2: Just figure out who your kids are as people before

699
00:35:42,239 --> 00:35:47,720
Speaker 2: you want to impose your philosophies and lifestyle entirely on them.

700
00:35:48,080 --> 00:35:50,799
Speaker 2: I think there's nothing wrong with being busy. I think

701
00:35:50,840 --> 00:35:53,640
Speaker 2: it's my role as a parent to support my kid's interests.

702
00:35:53,680 --> 00:35:56,239
Speaker 2: And I feel actually it would be kind of sad

703
00:35:56,280 --> 00:35:59,239
Speaker 2: if a kid really wanted to do stuff and parents said,

704
00:35:59,320 --> 00:36:01,880
Speaker 2: absolutely not, because we have to eat dinner at precisely

705
00:36:01,960 --> 00:36:04,520
Speaker 2: six pm every single night, Monday through Friday. I mean,

706
00:36:04,600 --> 00:36:05,960
Speaker 2: unless you, as a parent, are going to get eg

707
00:36:06,080 --> 00:36:07,920
Speaker 2: up everything else in your life to make that happen.

708
00:36:08,040 --> 00:36:11,479
Speaker 2: I think having family meals three times a week is great.

709
00:36:11,480 --> 00:36:13,840
Speaker 2: Three times a week is habit. Do it Friday, Saturday

710
00:36:13,840 --> 00:36:17,600
Speaker 2: and Sunday right or do Tuesday morning breakfast together. Change

711
00:36:17,640 --> 00:36:19,720
Speaker 2: your work schedule to make that happen. If family meals

712
00:36:19,760 --> 00:36:23,240
Speaker 2: matter to you, and then do Tuesday morning breakfast together

713
00:36:23,280 --> 00:36:24,839
Speaker 2: and let the kid be on the team they want

714
00:36:24,840 --> 00:36:27,040
Speaker 2: to be on. Sorry, I will get off my soapbox now.

715
00:36:27,800 --> 00:36:29,959
Speaker 1: I love it. Well, how about you?

716
00:36:30,200 --> 00:36:33,080
Speaker 3: How about your back to You're just not there yet,

717
00:36:33,120 --> 00:36:35,799
Speaker 3: but once school does roll around, do you get a

718
00:36:35,840 --> 00:36:38,960
Speaker 3: surge of like back to school liss energy at all?

719
00:36:39,000 --> 00:36:41,640
Speaker 3: I do feel like for me it is like a

720
00:36:41,680 --> 00:36:45,799
Speaker 3: more productive season. And also I like the shift of

721
00:36:45,840 --> 00:36:48,160
Speaker 3: the rhythm from summer for us. I mean, I know

722
00:36:48,239 --> 00:36:50,080
Speaker 3: people are like, well, summer's not slower for me, but

723
00:36:50,120 --> 00:36:53,160
Speaker 3: for us, it is definitely slower. And then I kind

724
00:36:53,160 --> 00:36:55,080
Speaker 3: of like like how it rubs up and changes, Like

725
00:36:55,680 --> 00:36:58,600
Speaker 3: I crave those shifts, and so I'm excited for it.

726
00:36:59,600 --> 00:37:01,719
Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean a lot of the stuff I do

727
00:37:01,760 --> 00:37:06,040
Speaker 2: week to week is pretty similar. But I mean, I

728
00:37:06,080 --> 00:37:09,040
Speaker 2: am planning to start the actual writing of my next

729
00:37:09,080 --> 00:37:10,480
Speaker 2: book in the fall. I've been doing a lot of

730
00:37:10,520 --> 00:37:12,680
Speaker 2: research over the summer, so I guess that will be

731
00:37:13,120 --> 00:37:16,520
Speaker 2: a shift. And I'm training for a half marathon in

732
00:37:16,600 --> 00:37:20,319
Speaker 2: late October, so that's kind of exciting. And yeah, so

733
00:37:20,600 --> 00:37:22,920
Speaker 2: you know, I like the back to school energy. I

734
00:37:23,000 --> 00:37:27,520
Speaker 2: like buying school supplies, but yeah, I don't know.

735
00:37:27,600 --> 00:37:28,879
Speaker 1: I mean, the.

736
00:37:28,880 --> 00:37:34,400
Speaker 2: Extra stuff does make life more challenging, but I just,

737
00:37:35,760 --> 00:37:38,040
Speaker 2: you know, make sure that I have enough time to

738
00:37:38,080 --> 00:37:39,200
Speaker 2: work each week.

739
00:37:39,239 --> 00:37:40,239
Speaker 1: Take each week at a time.

740
00:37:40,280 --> 00:37:42,800
Speaker 2: Don't think I'm necessarily going to set stuff and forget it,

741
00:37:42,800 --> 00:37:45,960
Speaker 2: because with five kids, that never happens. But then I'm

742
00:37:45,960 --> 00:37:48,520
Speaker 2: going to remember, like, oh, yeah, and summer was a

743
00:37:48,520 --> 00:37:50,480
Speaker 2: lot less like that, right, We had weeks where there

744
00:37:50,560 --> 00:37:54,400
Speaker 2: was almost zero activities, So I think, you know, I

745
00:37:54,400 --> 00:37:56,520
Speaker 2: will keep that in mind during the weeks when I

746
00:37:56,520 --> 00:37:58,320
Speaker 2: get a little bit annoyed.

747
00:37:58,520 --> 00:38:00,520
Speaker 1: How much is going on?

748
00:38:01,360 --> 00:38:03,000
Speaker 2: Well, so this has been a lot of back to

749
00:38:03,080 --> 00:38:10,720
Speaker 2: school related topics. We have slightly a question related to that. So, Sarah,

750
00:38:10,800 --> 00:38:15,000
Speaker 2: how much do you plan family travel around kids' activities

751
00:38:15,080 --> 00:38:18,360
Speaker 2: or how much should you plan family vacations, et cetera

752
00:38:18,480 --> 00:38:19,879
Speaker 2: around kid activities?

753
00:38:20,360 --> 00:38:22,160
Speaker 3: Yeah, I don't have an answer for this. This is

754
00:38:22,160 --> 00:38:24,960
Speaker 3: more a question that I ask on my website, so

755
00:38:25,400 --> 00:38:28,319
Speaker 3: and I was interested in people's answers. In fact, we

756
00:38:28,400 --> 00:38:32,719
Speaker 3: had one person very adamantly that she really did not

757
00:38:33,239 --> 00:38:37,200
Speaker 3: plan unless it was the biggest tournament of the year

758
00:38:37,520 --> 00:38:41,240
Speaker 3: or like some incredibly big milestone event of the season.

759
00:38:41,400 --> 00:38:45,680
Speaker 3: She prioritized vacations and her kids are like elite level,

760
00:38:45,760 --> 00:38:49,360
Speaker 3: like going to be college athletes, kind of like that realm.

761
00:38:50,120 --> 00:38:52,400
Speaker 3: So for her to say that meant a lot other

762
00:38:52,520 --> 00:38:54,520
Speaker 3: than I joked with my friend that like, well, maybe

763
00:38:54,600 --> 00:38:58,560
Speaker 3: consider less talented. We can't afford that kind of lenience.

764
00:38:58,600 --> 00:39:02,680
Speaker 3: Now I'm just kidding. I personally don't feel like I

765
00:39:02,719 --> 00:39:05,160
Speaker 3: know what my policy yet is, but I will say

766
00:39:05,200 --> 00:39:07,200
Speaker 3: that Cameron is for the second year in a row,

767
00:39:07,239 --> 00:39:11,120
Speaker 3: missing the first week of soccer practice because we're going

768
00:39:11,120 --> 00:39:14,399
Speaker 3: on family trips, so obviously we're not like Diehard must

769
00:39:14,440 --> 00:39:18,040
Speaker 3: be at every single thing. And yet at the same time,

770
00:39:18,200 --> 00:39:20,640
Speaker 3: if I see a tournament or something on the calendar,

771
00:39:21,080 --> 00:39:25,239
Speaker 3: I sort of try not to put other stuff there.

772
00:39:25,520 --> 00:39:28,759
Speaker 3: So I don't know, still learning, still figuring that out.

773
00:39:28,760 --> 00:39:30,320
Speaker 3: I'm not going to give my definitive answer.

774
00:39:31,640 --> 00:39:35,640
Speaker 2: Yeah, it hasn't really come up that much for us

775
00:39:35,760 --> 00:39:38,839
Speaker 2: because you know, a lot of the activities have been

776
00:39:38,880 --> 00:39:41,319
Speaker 2: school based, and so they're probably not going to have

777
00:39:41,440 --> 00:39:44,200
Speaker 2: their major thing during the spring break or during the summer,

778
00:39:44,320 --> 00:39:46,719
Speaker 2: during Christmas.

779
00:39:46,360 --> 00:39:48,120
Speaker 1: And you know my kids.

780
00:39:48,760 --> 00:39:51,640
Speaker 2: So the one thing we have had this year, Sam

781
00:39:51,719 --> 00:39:53,960
Speaker 2: wants to run on the cross country team, and of

782
00:39:53,960 --> 00:39:56,160
Speaker 2: course they're doing their ramp up in August, which is

783
00:39:56,200 --> 00:39:58,440
Speaker 2: when we are on vacation. But he's going to go

784
00:39:58,480 --> 00:40:01,759
Speaker 2: to a couple of the practice that he can, and

785
00:40:01,960 --> 00:40:04,600
Speaker 2: I mean, he's a freshman and he hasn't done this before,

786
00:40:04,640 --> 00:40:06,440
Speaker 2: so it's not like he's going to be running varsity anyway.

787
00:40:06,480 --> 00:40:09,719
Speaker 2: So it's mostly like it's just to try it out.

788
00:40:10,440 --> 00:40:14,040
Speaker 2: So we'll see what the policies.

789
00:40:13,480 --> 00:40:14,080
Speaker 1: Are on that.

790
00:40:14,360 --> 00:40:18,360
Speaker 2: But I am hoping that for the newbie freshmen joining

791
00:40:18,400 --> 00:40:21,480
Speaker 2: the team just for fun. The policies maybe a little

792
00:40:21,480 --> 00:40:24,600
Speaker 2: different than the people who are competing for the school

793
00:40:25,560 --> 00:40:28,279
Speaker 2: in the various tournaments. So we shall see. But that's

794
00:40:28,400 --> 00:40:30,560
Speaker 2: we're not taking our vacation.

795
00:40:31,239 --> 00:40:33,359
Speaker 3: I mean, of all sports, that's one where you could

796
00:40:33,520 --> 00:40:36,000
Speaker 3: very easily be handed a training plan and do it

797
00:40:36,080 --> 00:40:37,840
Speaker 3: remotely to get ready for your season.

798
00:40:38,080 --> 00:40:39,280
Speaker 1: And perhaps one.

799
00:40:39,120 --> 00:40:42,400
Speaker 2: Should do that, Sarah, that would be good, and maybe

800
00:40:43,880 --> 00:40:46,960
Speaker 2: a child could do more runs on their own and

801
00:40:46,960 --> 00:40:50,439
Speaker 2: not when they are structured from the everyone else doing

802
00:40:50,440 --> 00:40:50,960
Speaker 2: them around you.

803
00:40:51,040 --> 00:40:55,400
Speaker 1: But you know we're not all our own people, all right.

804
00:40:55,440 --> 00:40:57,759
Speaker 3: Well, Loves of the week, I have to give a

805
00:40:57,760 --> 00:41:05,040
Speaker 3: school supply because of course mine is the Cocuyo Campus Notebook. Okay,

806
00:41:05,520 --> 00:41:08,399
Speaker 3: that sounds fancy, but they're actually not like I think

807
00:41:08,440 --> 00:41:12,640
Speaker 3: they're kind of like the Mead Spiral bound of Japan.

808
00:41:14,120 --> 00:41:18,279
Speaker 3: They are like these little kind of like glue bound notebooks,

809
00:41:18,440 --> 00:41:21,000
Speaker 3: and they're not terribly expensive. You can actually get them

810
00:41:21,000 --> 00:41:22,920
Speaker 3: at like Barnes and Noble. They're way marked up, like

811
00:41:22,960 --> 00:41:25,360
Speaker 3: they're way cheaper at Jetpens or maybe even on Amazon.

812
00:41:25,400 --> 00:41:28,719
Speaker 3: I don't know, but they're just like great. They're like

813
00:41:28,800 --> 00:41:31,520
Speaker 3: sixty or so pages the paper is lovely. They have

814
00:41:31,600 --> 00:41:34,120
Speaker 3: a great form of ruling that I really like. They

815
00:41:34,200 --> 00:41:36,440
Speaker 3: like lines with like almost like dots in the life.

816
00:41:36,480 --> 00:41:39,879
Speaker 3: I can't explain it, but they're great. Annabel requested them specifically.

817
00:41:39,960 --> 00:41:41,960
Speaker 3: She's like, I can you get me these for taking

818
00:41:42,000 --> 00:41:44,520
Speaker 3: notes because for her school they they're basically on laptops,

819
00:41:44,520 --> 00:41:47,080
Speaker 3: So they're like, use whatever paper supplies you feel will

820
00:41:47,080 --> 00:41:48,600
Speaker 3: support you, but we are not going to tell you

821
00:41:48,600 --> 00:41:52,719
Speaker 3: what to get. So thrilled to outfit her in Cocuyo

822
00:41:52,800 --> 00:41:56,840
Speaker 3: campus notebooks. So if you have not tried them, recommend.

823
00:41:56,800 --> 00:41:58,600
Speaker 2: I might have to put in an order. I'm always

824
00:41:58,600 --> 00:42:01,360
Speaker 2: looking for a good notebook. I like spiral bound with

825
00:42:01,400 --> 00:42:05,200
Speaker 2: a harder cover. Myself always cos or not that these

826
00:42:05,200 --> 00:42:08,399
Speaker 2: are not that okay, well then maybe not. My love

827
00:42:08,400 --> 00:42:10,480
Speaker 2: of the week is unexpected hand me down. So I

828
00:42:10,520 --> 00:42:12,520
Speaker 2: was out in the garage like hunting through stuff, and

829
00:42:12,560 --> 00:42:15,000
Speaker 2: I found a pair of crocs that fit Henry exactly.

830
00:42:15,680 --> 00:42:18,279
Speaker 1: So that's helpful for.

831
00:42:18,280 --> 00:42:19,880
Speaker 2: Going out in the yard to the pool or I

832
00:42:19,920 --> 00:42:21,520
Speaker 2: guess walking on the sand to the beach.

833
00:42:21,960 --> 00:42:22,760
Speaker 1: So I'm really.

834
00:42:22,520 --> 00:42:25,799
Speaker 2: Glad that we have this pair of cracks and I

835
00:42:25,800 --> 00:42:28,080
Speaker 2: don't have to buy a pair of sandals for him.

836
00:42:28,120 --> 00:42:31,320
Speaker 1: It's all all good. Sometimes you win. You shopped your garage.

837
00:42:31,640 --> 00:42:36,520
Speaker 2: I shopped my garage. I probably need to shop my garage.

838
00:42:36,520 --> 00:42:38,920
Speaker 2: Shot my closets for more things I was getting. When

839
00:42:38,920 --> 00:42:40,839
Speaker 2: I was getting Alex ready for camp, I found more

840
00:42:40,880 --> 00:42:43,480
Speaker 2: pairs of size eight to ten shorts. I'm like, who

841
00:42:43,480 --> 00:42:45,160
Speaker 2: even knew we had all these pairs of eight to

842
00:42:45,160 --> 00:42:49,359
Speaker 2: ten shorts that still fit? So we packed those with them.

843
00:42:49,400 --> 00:42:50,799
Speaker 2: He had extras, didn't have to buy more.

844
00:42:50,880 --> 00:42:55,040
Speaker 1: All good. Well, this has been a best of both worlds.

845
00:42:55,040 --> 00:42:57,560
Speaker 2: We've been talking all things back to school as we

846
00:42:57,640 --> 00:42:59,920
Speaker 2: have for lo these many years, as our kids have

847
00:43:00,120 --> 00:43:03,880
Speaker 2: on to low these many grades. So who even knows

848
00:43:03,920 --> 00:43:06,719
Speaker 2: twenty twenty five back to School Extravaganza what we'll be

849
00:43:06,760 --> 00:43:10,120
Speaker 2: talking about. But for now, this is this one and

850
00:43:10,160 --> 00:43:12,080
Speaker 2: we will be back next week with more on making

851
00:43:12,120 --> 00:43:13,400
Speaker 2: work and life fit together.

852
00:43:15,520 --> 00:43:18,279
Speaker 3: Thanks for listening. You can find me Sarah at the

853
00:43:18,280 --> 00:43:22,680
Speaker 3: shoebox dot com or at the Underscore Shoebox on Instagram,

854
00:43:23,120 --> 00:43:23,720
Speaker 3: and you can.

855
00:43:23,600 --> 00:43:27,879
Speaker 2: Find me Laura at Laura vandercam dot com. This has

856
00:43:27,920 --> 00:43:31,200
Speaker 2: been the best of both worlds podcasts. Please join us

857
00:43:31,200 --> 00:43:34,600
Speaker 2: next time for more on making work and life work together.