Speaker 1: Hi.
Speaker 2: I'm Laura Vanderkamp. I'm a mother of five, an author, journalist,
Speaker 2: and speaker.
Speaker 3: And I'm Sarah hart Hunger, a mother of three, practicing physician,
Speaker 3: writer and course creator. We are two working parents who
Speaker 3: love our careers and our families.
Speaker 2: Welcome to best of both worlds. Here we talk about
Speaker 2: how real women manage work, family, and time for fun.
Speaker 2: From figuring out childcare to mapping out long term career goals.
Speaker 2: We want you to get the most out of life.
Speaker 1: Welcome to best of both worlds. This is Laura.
Speaker 2: This episode is airing in mid August of twenty twenty four.
Speaker 2: This is our annual back to school episode. I believe
Speaker 2: we've called it several things, Sarah, how are we over
Speaker 2: the past seven years?
Speaker 1: What is it?
Speaker 2: Back to school Extravaganza, Bonanza? What else did we do back?
Speaker 3: And it does look like we've done a back to
Speaker 3: school episode every year for several before Extravaganza and Bonanza,
Speaker 3: it was like back to School COVID and then back
Speaker 3: to School COVID two point zero or something like that.
Speaker 3: And we did do one in twenty nineteen as well,
Speaker 3: but I didn't see what that one was called. I
Speaker 3: wouldn't be surprised if we recycled Bonanza and Extravaganza, because
Speaker 3: I don't remember going back to look in previous years.
Speaker 2: Yeah, at least it wasn't like back to school Palooza
Speaker 2: or something.
Speaker 1: I think we've tried that as.
Speaker 3: We saved that for Planner Paluza. Planner Paluza.
Speaker 2: Yes, well you know it's uh, you do this for
Speaker 2: many years, so we have a upcoming anniversary episode. You
Speaker 2: do kind of run through the same titles over and
Speaker 2: over and some of the same topics. But back to
Speaker 2: school is always an exciting time, and for families with
Speaker 2: school age children, it is going to affect all your
Speaker 2: household rhythms, schedules. Many people have to completely rework their
Speaker 2: schedules at this point. For get kids various places. People
Speaker 2: who have jobs that either are flexible where they're changing
Speaker 2: some of their hours around to accommodate the school schedules
Speaker 2: and activities, or people who don't have a whole lot
Speaker 2: of job flexibility need to figure out how that will
Speaker 2: all work as well. So it's a big topic and
Speaker 2: certainly is for us as well. So Sarah, there is
Speaker 2: a little bit of difference though of when people go
Speaker 2: to school, When people do go back to school. For me,
Speaker 2: this is like what it's back to school? When do
Speaker 2: you guys start?
Speaker 3: I know, this is a difficult one because I feel
Speaker 3: like there's this pressure to get your back to school
Speaker 3: content out because some people are very excited to listen
Speaker 3: to it in early August because their kids are headed
Speaker 3: back to school early, and mine are in that group.
Speaker 3: We're not in like the earliest wave. But this year,
Speaker 3: our local public actually starts August twelfth, which for South
Speaker 3: Florida is actually quite early. Usually when we're like mid August,
Speaker 3: and my kids go back somewhere between that and then
Speaker 3: the week after, depending on the school in the scenario
Speaker 3: as we will discuss. So we're on the pretty early side,
Speaker 3: although not the earliest. My dear friend Kelsey, who podcasts
Speaker 3: at Girl Nextdoor podcast, her kids go to a public
Speaker 3: school in Arizona, and I believe it starts in late July.
Speaker 1: Oh my goodness. So they win, they win. We just
Speaker 1: keep moving it back and back and back.
Speaker 2: Next thing, you know, summer break is starting in a
Speaker 2: April or something. I just forget the whole spring break concept.
Speaker 1: I don't know.
Speaker 3: I think they do end early, and they may have
Speaker 3: a little bit more of a year round kind of structure,
Speaker 3: which is also another school configuration neither Laura nor I
Speaker 3: have personal experience with, but is definitely a thing in
Speaker 3: some reasons. And so for you guys, back to school
Speaker 3: could almost be anytime. Yeah, it could be anytime this
Speaker 3: UD we could keep running this episode year round.
Speaker 2: Yeah. No, we start September three this year, which is
Speaker 2: actually a relatively.
Speaker 1: Early start for us.
Speaker 2: I'm going to say, because Labor Day happens to be
Speaker 2: about as early as Labor Day can be this year,
Speaker 2: So it's always the Tuesday after Labor Day, unless we
Speaker 2: have a configuration of the major Jewish holidays that bump
Speaker 2: up against early September, in which case we have gone
Speaker 2: back after the start of Rashashana. So that has pushed
Speaker 2: it more to know September eight or nine if it's
Speaker 2: been early. But the holidays are later this year, so
Speaker 2: Rashashana is in early October, so that doesn't.
Speaker 3: Put our start any different. But I feel like you
Speaker 3: love when it's late, am I correct? I do.
Speaker 2: It's just like bonus time because obviously we've had full
Speaker 2: time childcare, we have a full time nanny, so it's
Speaker 2: not that we're scrambling for coverage for that last time,
Speaker 2: and I find that having time into September often allows
Speaker 2: us to take some sort of late summer vacation at
Speaker 2: a time that is maybe not quite as full in
Speaker 2: a lot of places, because many people, as you mentioned,
Speaker 2: are going back to school in August twelfth or something
Speaker 2: like that, and so I don't know, I like the
Speaker 2: idea of still being on summer break into September. We've
Speaker 2: got some plans for that this share, which we'll talk
Speaker 2: about in future episodes.
Speaker 1: I'm sure.
Speaker 2: But yeah, it's nine to three this year, Henry is
Speaker 2: I think a day or two later. But yeah, we're
Speaker 2: headed into it, and for better or for worse, school
Speaker 2: schedules will impact our routines. So we're going to discuss
Speaker 2: all aspects of this topic in this episode, and hopefully,
Speaker 2: even if this is not your first back to school
Speaker 2: round with us, or you're back to school round in general,
Speaker 2: you'll think of something that will help you make this
Speaker 2: transition a little bit more calm and smooth.
Speaker 3: I mean, truthfully, I think one of the reasons this
Speaker 3: is such a perennial topic is because every year is different,
Speaker 3: especially so if you have multiple kids. Because it increases
Speaker 3: the likelihood that some going to be having a big
Speaker 3: change in any given year. If you've got four different kids,
Speaker 3: probably someone is moving from elementary to middle, or middle
Speaker 3: to high or whatever. And so I do often feel
Speaker 3: to some extent like I am starting from scratch every time.
Speaker 3: Obviously this is not our first rodeo, but every combination
Speaker 3: is new for us. And every year I start to
Speaker 3: feel like, oh, how weird I don't have a kid
Speaker 3: in XYZ young child grade. And yeah, newsflash to self,
Speaker 3: like that's not going to stop.
Speaker 2: Well, Sara, why don't you talk about your current configuration
Speaker 2: because you have some new stuff going on for your
Speaker 2: family this year?
Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean don't we all? So for this year,
Speaker 3: we have a first grader, a fifth grader, and a
Speaker 3: seventh grader, and I do feel like not having a
Speaker 3: kindergarten preschool child, and at our school, what is known
Speaker 3: as early childhood is going to feel quite different. In
Speaker 3: the Monosaur system, there's one classroom for children ages three
Speaker 3: to six, which is like pre K three through kindergarten.
Speaker 3: They're actually all together, and so Genevieve's actually been in
Speaker 3: the same classroom since I actually think she moved up
Speaker 3: in twenty twenty, right before we all left school. I
Speaker 3: think it was like January twenty twenty she got to
Speaker 3: this new classroom. Then obviously we had a few months off,
Speaker 3: but we did restart that fall, and she's been in
Speaker 3: that classroom ever since. That's a really really long time.
Speaker 3: It hasn't been the same teacher the whole time, but
Speaker 3: it was the same teacher for two years and then
Speaker 3: another teacher for two years, and so this is going
Speaker 3: to be probably like one of the biggest, most seismic
Speaker 3: shifts we've had in a while, so that's exciting. Her
Speaker 3: new class will be grades one through three altogether, that's
Speaker 3: called Lower Elementary. Cameron is in fifth. He really doesn't
Speaker 3: He's like the only kid who like this is kind
Speaker 3: of like business as usual, same classroom, same teacher, kind
Speaker 3: of happy to have somebody that's on autopilot to some extent.
Speaker 3: And then Annabelle is actually going to a brand new school,
Speaker 3: which was a decision we made last spring for a
Speaker 3: few different reasons, and so that is going to have
Speaker 3: its own set of logistical challenges, just general feelings of newness,
Speaker 3: and we're really looking forward to it. I think her
Speaker 3: new school looks very promising and awesome, but obviously that's
Speaker 3: going to be an adjustment for all of us. We
Speaker 3: actually haven't really had a new school in the mix
Speaker 3: for a while either.
Speaker 1: Now, how far is that school from your other school?
Speaker 3: Well, luckily enough, they're actually very close together, so they're
Speaker 3: about there. Will I mean like nine to ten minute
Speaker 3: drive apart. We'll see what that looks like on actual
Speaker 3: school days. And geographically it works fairly well in that
Speaker 3: from her drop off to the other kids school drop
Speaker 3: off to my work is kind of one linear path,
Speaker 3: so I think it will work out okay, but ask
Speaker 3: me in a few weeks.
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, no, I was just saying like two drop
Speaker 2: offs though. I mean, my experience of car lines is
Speaker 2: they don't always move at the speed one might wish
Speaker 2: that they would move at.
Speaker 3: I agree. I'm these are not huge schools, either of them.
Speaker 3: I have lots of experiences, obviously with the drop off
Speaker 3: situation in the school where they've been, which is quite streamlined.
Speaker 3: A lot of times, the best thing to do is
Speaker 3: avoid the car line because it's a tiny campus and
Speaker 3: you just park, walk your kid in and get out
Speaker 3: of there. So at least one out of two is
Speaker 3: a known and fairly easy commodity, And I mean the
Speaker 3: other one is it's not a thousand kids or anything
Speaker 3: like that that are going to be in the middle
Speaker 3: school drop off line, so I hope it's decent.
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, Okay, Well let's fingers crossed for that. Well,
Speaker 2: let's take a quick ad break and then we'll come
Speaker 2: back with more on back to school.
Speaker 3: All right, Well, you heard a lot about my scenario
Speaker 3: for this year. Laura, You, as usual, have a lot
Speaker 3: of moving parts. Can you tell our listeners where you
Speaker 3: guys are all going to be?
Speaker 2: Yeah, well, we actually only have one child shifting this year.
Speaker 2: We still have four schools for five kids, but the
Speaker 2: configuration of who is at which school just changes slightly.
Speaker 2: But we are not introducing any new schools or anything
Speaker 2: like that, which is kind of fun, so some continuity.
Speaker 2: Jasper is going to be in twelfth grade this fall.
Speaker 2: Sam is going to be in ninth grade, so he
Speaker 2: will be joining him at the high school. Ruth is
Speaker 2: going to be in seventh grade, Alex will be in
Speaker 2: fourth grade, and Henry will be doing his last year
Speaker 2: of preschool. So it is still a lot of different schools,
Speaker 2: but the big change for us is that, well, we're
Speaker 2: doing drop off discussion later, but all our schools start
Speaker 2: times changed because, as longtime listeners know, we've covered this topic,
Speaker 2: there's been some considerable research that having high schools start
Speaker 2: ridiculously early in the morning does nobody any favors. I mean,
Speaker 2: it may be more convenient for the adults who work there,
Speaker 2: but for the children who are adolescents, the way their
Speaker 2: bodies work, it's very hard for them to be up
Speaker 2: and moving. And so there's some reasonable evidence that kids
Speaker 2: do better in school, they have higher graduation rates, there's
Speaker 2: fewer disciplinary issues and all that if high school starts
Speaker 2: a little bit later. So our district adopted that, but
Speaker 2: of course that changes everything in terms of the buses
Speaker 2: and the times that the other schools have to start,
Speaker 2: and so yeah, we'll be having.
Speaker 1: To deal with that.
Speaker 2: But the last year of preschool thing is kind of
Speaker 2: fun because we've had a kid at this particular preschool
Speaker 2: since twenty eleven with only one year off.
Speaker 1: Wow, So it's an end of an era for sure.
Speaker 3: For sure, they're going to really miss you guys. That's
Speaker 3: so sad.
Speaker 1: It is a little sad.
Speaker 2: I was doing the paperwork for Henry's like setting in
Speaker 2: all the medical forms and whatever else, the textbook form
Speaker 2: you have to sign so that the state can provide
Speaker 2: textbooks to private schools and whatever else, and it was
Speaker 2: just like, this is the last time I'm signing this form.
Speaker 3: Wow, end of an era. Indeed, Well, I'm excited that
Speaker 3: we'll have a lot to talk about in next year's episode.
Speaker 3: Maybe you'll be crying while we recorded. I don't know,
Speaker 3: so since you are, we're not going to devote the
Speaker 3: entire episode to this, but I'm sure we have listeners
Speaker 3: with kids in a similar age bracket, And I'm just
Speaker 3: wondering how you're feeling staring down having a senior, and
Speaker 3: I don't know, like whether you've already started thinking about
Speaker 3: that and how you're supporting him. We're not going to
Speaker 3: talk about the college process in detail today because spoiler alert,
Speaker 3: we have an episode coming up that will be on
Speaker 3: that topic. But I don't know, give us a little
Speaker 3: teaser of what that's been like or what you anticipate.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean, well, I'm just playing a supportive role
Speaker 2: because my son, Jasper is close to being an adult
Speaker 2: and needs to do his own. You know, the college
Speaker 2: application process is kind of your first big adult thing
Speaker 2: that you are doing. I can tell you that it's
Speaker 2: different from when we are apply to me. For one thing,
Speaker 2: it's all digital, which is not surprising, but that changed
Speaker 2: at some point between when you and I went to
Speaker 2: school and now that the kids these days are applying,
Speaker 2: the common application is a much bigger thing now, like
Speaker 2: the number of places that take it, either as is
Speaker 2: or with a small supplemental individual application process. The common
Speaker 2: app opens like August first. We're recording this right at
Speaker 2: the beginning of August, and so today he's getting together
Speaker 2: with a friend to go through and manage their common
Speaker 2: app stuff, to gather checking how each of them are
Speaker 2: doing it.
Speaker 1: And I happen to know he's.
Speaker 2: Got everything mostly put together, accept the teacher recommendations which
Speaker 2: he put in his requests for and all that. Obviously
Speaker 2: they probably weren't doing all of it in August, so
Speaker 2: he may have to wait till the start of the
Speaker 2: school year to collect those. But yeah, I mean, I
Speaker 2: am excited for him. As a practical matter, one of
Speaker 2: our state universities has rolling in missions, and so he's
Speaker 2: just going to get his application into that as soon
Speaker 2: as possible, hopefully get a decision within a few weeks
Speaker 2: of that submission. Fingers crossed that would work out. But
Speaker 2: then that will just make senior year a lot less
Speaker 2: tense in the sense that he is welcome to apply
Speaker 2: anywhere else that he wishes to.
Speaker 1: But having that.
Speaker 2: Hopeful admission in hand will mean that whatever else happens,
Speaker 2: we have a good option. And that is great because
Speaker 2: I think senior year winds up getting consumed often by
Speaker 2: this whole college thing, and it's still a wonderful year
Speaker 2: and it's own right that shouldn't be written off.
Speaker 1: So that's my take.
Speaker 3: That is so true, and I like that the idea
Speaker 3: of taking the heat off that first admission. I still remember,
Speaker 3: like my first med school admission, my first It's true
Speaker 3: because you're like, okay, all right, Like whatever else happens,
Speaker 3: we're good. Like that's it's very important, and that would
Speaker 3: be wonderful for him. So rooting for that to work out,
Speaker 3: all right, Well, we're going to dive into drop off
Speaker 3: and pick up. I know this sounds dry, and yet
Speaker 3: I feel like when I listen to other people's logistical discussions,
Speaker 3: I often get ideas or I'll be like, oh, you
Speaker 3: can do that, and so we're going to go there.
Speaker 3: I guess, do you want to go first?
Speaker 1: Yeah, you can go, you can go. I'm men go.
Speaker 3: Okay, Well, mine's less exciting because you have some drivers
Speaker 3: and I do not. So I will just note that
Speaker 3: we plan on Josh and I doing the bulk of
Speaker 3: the morning driving. I will likely drive on the days
Speaker 3: that I have clinical patients because I do believe that
Speaker 3: I can get there. I mean, it's just a good
Speaker 3: location for me to be able to drop off both
Speaker 3: kids on my way, and I'd rather have those child
Speaker 3: care hours for later since my kids are doing so
Speaker 3: many evening activities. I actually think our nanny may prefer
Speaker 3: this as well. I think she's gotten used to not
Speaker 3: coming in super early. I make her extra coffee.
Speaker 1: When she does.
Speaker 3: But the schedule works for her as well. And so
Speaker 3: that'll be three to four days of me driving and
Speaker 3: one to two days of Josh driving. He's a little
Speaker 3: bit more flexible one day of the week, and we'll
Speaker 3: see if we can make it work. Probably on a
Speaker 3: rare occasion, if both of us are early er, one
Speaker 3: of us is out of town or something like that,
Speaker 3: then she would step in, come in a little bit
Speaker 3: earlier and then the afternoon will generally be her picking
Speaker 3: up similar to the drop off, it'll kind of be
Speaker 3: going from one school to another. And the only challenge
Speaker 3: that I see here is that I think our mornings
Speaker 3: are going to have to start significantly earlier than they
Speaker 3: did last year. We could get away with leaving at
Speaker 3: seven to forty five last year and kind of be okay.
Speaker 3: It actually wasn't ideal for me from a work perspective,
Speaker 3: like I'd be kind of like right on the borderline
Speaker 3: of like my first patient's already roomed and I'm rushing
Speaker 3: in there, and I don't love that. I like to
Speaker 3: be like, oh, and I'm like very very like to
Speaker 3: run on time. So if my patient's ready at eight thirty,
Speaker 3: I want to be in the room at eight thirty one,
Speaker 3: not eight thirty seven. So I anticipate we're gonna have
Speaker 3: to leave more like seven twenty five, maybe even seven
Speaker 3: twenty for this to be realistic with the double drop off,
Speaker 3: And so I think this is going to be rough
Speaker 3: for the kids and for me a little bit because
Speaker 3: I love to run in the morning, and that means
Speaker 3: that a lot of times I'm bursting through the door
Speaker 3: at seven and that probably isn't gonna work. So I'm
Speaker 3: gonna have to really work backwards and think about this.
Speaker 3: And really this all goes back to bedtime, because you
Speaker 3: have to get enough sleep if you're going to get
Speaker 3: enough up earlier for the kids. And yet we have
Speaker 3: the challenge of some later evening activities as we'll talk about.
Speaker 3: So yeah, I mean, I think there's going to be
Speaker 3: a learning curve. Now, do the schools the two schools
Speaker 3: start at enough different times that it works to have
Speaker 3: the two drop offs, because that's of course always the issue.
Speaker 2: If you've got like two schools that start at nine
Speaker 2: o'clock or something like that, Yeah, then you have a problem.
Speaker 3: They do, And we know other families with the same
Speaker 3: exact combination of schools who I've done this before, because
Speaker 3: it's not terribly uncommon, especially because the younger kids school
Speaker 3: only goes to eighth grade and the other school goes
Speaker 3: to twelfth grade. So it's kind of a done thing.
Speaker 3: And there's enough of a range for Genevieve and Cameron
Speaker 3: that I think will be okay. Annabel is the one
Speaker 3: that's going to have the more strict but she's going
Speaker 3: to be first.
Speaker 1: She's the first.
Speaker 2: Yeah, so of the other twour slightly later, it's not
Speaker 2: the end of the world. Then, okay, all right, got it?
Speaker 3: Got it? So what about you guys? You have a driver.
Speaker 2: I do have a driver, and more importantly a parking pass,
Speaker 2: because having your license does nothing if there's nowhere to
Speaker 2: leave your car during the day, and it's you know,
Speaker 2: sometimes I find I.
Speaker 1: Love where I live.
Speaker 2: But there are also all the neighborhoods around the high
Speaker 2: school have giant no parking anytime signs on the street
Speaker 2: that they have I guess forgot their own on street
Speaker 2: parking privileges to make sure that no student would ever
Speaker 2: dare park in front of their house, which is just nuts,
Speaker 2: but anyway, so it coast. We did manage to get
Speaker 2: a parking spot at the high school. So the plan
Speaker 2: is that Jasper and Sam will drive there to gather
Speaker 2: in the morning. I think the coming home will be
Speaker 2: a little bit more unclear. Jasper obviously will drive himself
Speaker 2: because he has the car there, but Sam has different
Speaker 2: activities than Jasper does, so we'll just sort of take
Speaker 2: that day by day and make sure that the two
Speaker 2: of them touch base at some point. If there is
Speaker 2: any lack of clarity, about who is coming home when
Speaker 2: the high school is actually going to be starting at
Speaker 2: eight thirty this year, so that will be significantly later
Speaker 2: than the seven.
Speaker 1: Thirty start last year.
Speaker 2: So last year Jasper would take off usually with Michael,
Speaker 2: at seven o'clock to get there. This year, that will
Speaker 2: not be happening. Obviously, nobody needs to leave for seven
Speaker 2: o'clock for the high school, so I assume that he
Speaker 2: and Sam will leave around eight o'clock, which is obviously
Speaker 2: a much later time. They probably won't have to get
Speaker 2: up till seven thirty around then, which of course means
Speaker 2: they'll want to stay up later, which we'll figure out
Speaker 2: how that gets managed. The middle school, sadly enough, moved
Speaker 2: earlier because you have only one set of buses and
Speaker 2: bus drivers, and so things had to move around. Now
Speaker 2: it didn't move by much. It used to start at
Speaker 2: eight fifteen, and now it starts at eight. However, Ruth
Speaker 2: has been playing in the jazz band, which historically has
Speaker 2: met before school, so.
Speaker 1: We shall see.
Speaker 2: I assume one of us is going to be driving
Speaker 2: her a lot of mornings, and that means that we'll
Speaker 2: be getting up not too much later than we had
Speaker 2: been before, given that the times have moved. It's just
Speaker 2: you know, different kids and different things. The elementary school
Speaker 2: now doesn't start till nine ten, which is again it's
Speaker 2: the buses.
Speaker 3: But I hope that I think we will offer early
Speaker 3: care for family set. Do they offer early care for
Speaker 3: families that need it?
Speaker 2: There is there is before care and after care that
Speaker 2: I believe you can get on the list for and
Speaker 2: pay for. We have never done that, so I don't
Speaker 2: know how competitive it is to get into it, but yeah,
Speaker 2: because nine ten is just ridiculous. Like I mean, if
Speaker 2: you get your kid on the bus at eight forty,
Speaker 2: I mean I guess that you could then take off
Speaker 2: after that. But anyway, we'll probably be our nanny will
Speaker 2: likely be driving Alex and Henry to school in the
Speaker 2: morning because Henry has to get driven.
Speaker 1: His school will start at nine, but he's going full
Speaker 1: day this year.
Speaker 2: He's going nine to three, so that'll be a change
Speaker 2: for him. And then the reverse, I say, you know,
Speaker 2: somebody will pick up henrye. We'll do some pickups of Ruth.
Speaker 2: I'm not sure how this because we'll have the childcare,
Speaker 2: I think, and then Alex will see maybe he'll take
Speaker 2: the bus home, maybe he'll get picked up unclear.
Speaker 1: Bus tends to.
Speaker 2: Be a bit of a unknown craziness chaotic and he
Speaker 2: doesn't always do well with a slightly more chaotic backgrounds.
Speaker 2: But and then yeah, the older kid's getting home either bus,
Speaker 2: activity bus.
Speaker 1: I love the activity bus. The activity bus is amazing.
Speaker 2: You know, our district has at least in the past
Speaker 2: had two runs of buses in post school time for
Speaker 2: the middle school in high school. And it just takes
Speaker 2: you home so the kid can stay after for an activity.
Speaker 3: That is amazing. Does the activity bus go to like
Speaker 3: every stop the regular bus goes to or is it like.
Speaker 1: It does not?
Speaker 2: However ours does like the stop that is the activity
Speaker 2: bus made is the same one that the regular bus
Speaker 2: would make. Amazing, And my general sense is that it
Speaker 2: operated slightly more like a taxi service if there weren't
Speaker 2: that many kids on it, so that the driver was
Speaker 2: willing to drop you off kind of wherever you asked
Speaker 2: on his route, So if you passed near your house,
Speaker 2: he's not going to make you go like three blocks
Speaker 2: away to be dropped off.
Speaker 3: That is amazing. That is great, And I mean I
Speaker 3: feel like bussing must have come a while. I mean,
Speaker 3: can't you like track the buses now on apps and stuff.
Speaker 1: I think, well, you probably can't.
Speaker 2: Well we know, Okay, so I got the bus app
Speaker 2: and it was never updated, like, it was never quite right,
Speaker 2: like it would say, my bus is on time, and
Speaker 2: I'm like sitting there waiting for Alex. It's clearly ten
Speaker 2: minutes late. So it was like not in real time
Speaker 2: being updated. That said, I mean, my older kids have
Speaker 2: devices on them that have more real time data, so
Speaker 2: if I'm trying to figure out where on Earth they are,
Speaker 2: that's obviously a more direct way.
Speaker 1: Of doing it.
Speaker 3: Well, that's very odd that you can track your Uber
Speaker 3: Eats delivery but not your school bus.
Speaker 1: Not your kid's bus.
Speaker 2: I'm sure, yeah, I don't know, probably is a way
Speaker 2: to do it, but yeah, yeah, too funny.
Speaker 3: All right, Well should we take a quick break before
Speaker 3: we go to lunches?
Speaker 1: All right, one more quick ad break.
Speaker 2: All right, Well we are back talking all things back
Speaker 2: to school, a perennial favorite topic. So many logistics as
Speaker 2: we figure out, especially with larger families with lots of
Speaker 2: school aged kids, figuring out how everything works.
Speaker 1: Let's talk about lunch, Sarah.
Speaker 3: I know, I'm like, I know, we've had this discussion before,
Speaker 3: and yet every year I sort of have to think
Speaker 3: about it. And this year we have some new stuff,
Speaker 3: which is that everyone gets included lunch at out of
Speaker 3: our schools. So that's great, one less lunch to deal with.
Speaker 3: Except she was the only kid that was packing her
Speaker 3: own lunch consistently. So actually that doesn't really change, but
Speaker 3: doesn't no wins there, correct. Yeah, see us like changing
Speaker 3: very much. I just like being super super simple, like
Speaker 3: our nannie does help pack lunch generally Tuesday through Friday,
Speaker 3: and my classic Monday lunch is to just put one
Speaker 3: of the Trader Joe's pre done salads in the bag
Speaker 3: and a couple snacks and call it today. My kids
Speaker 3: are not super picky, so they will actually happily eat
Speaker 3: like Caesar salad with chicken from Trader Joe's, and it's
Speaker 3: like done.
Speaker 2: It's pressing the easy button. So you just pick those
Speaker 2: up when you do, like your Saturday shopping trip.
Speaker 3: I usually shop on Sunday, so that's exactly, and then
Speaker 3: I get usually get a couple for me too, so
Speaker 3: that's often like my Monday and Wednesday work lunch as well,
Speaker 3: and just anything I don't have to think about it.
Speaker 3: If I like it, then we're good. I could see
Speaker 3: them getting tired of it. But I'm sure Trader Joe's
Speaker 3: has some other pre made standbys that we could pivot to.
Speaker 2: Yes, exactly, you'll never run out of TJ's pre made
Speaker 2: lunch phenomenon. And I hear you have a water bottle hack.
Speaker 2: Modern children like to be hydrated, So where are you
Speaker 2: getting your water bottles these days?
Speaker 3: Oh geez, Well, we also have the best spoke water
Speaker 3: bottle collection of one child, including the limited edition Olivia
Speaker 3: Rodrigo Stanley that we had to enter a lottery to
Speaker 3: purchase and it has its own little shrine and it's adorable.
Speaker 3: But I also have a hot tip, which is that
Speaker 3: ross Like the discount store has really good water bottles,
Speaker 3: Like I feel like they must be last seasons designer
Speaker 3: water bottles, but like, who cares? So we got we
Speaker 3: got like a nice like Columbia one and an Adida's one,
Speaker 3: and they look nice and they were like half the
Speaker 3: price that you would normally pay for these things, because
Speaker 3: water bottles have gotten quite trendy and expensive.
Speaker 2: Yeah, there's a huge problem here, like with the idea
Speaker 2: of a reusable water bottle that you're buying to be
Speaker 2: more sustainable, but you buy a new one every time
Speaker 2: there's a.
Speaker 1: Like the trend changes. I mean, anyway, it's.
Speaker 2: Probably slightly better than having a disposable water But I
Speaker 2: refill my disposable water bottles like I just rints them
Speaker 2: out and reuse them like for weeks on end.
Speaker 3: So not entirely sure, that's like my grocery bag thing.
Speaker 3: I'm like, I just used the paper ones like thirty
Speaker 3: times and then yeah, exactly.
Speaker 2: Exactly, like yeah, you know, hot tip. Many disposable items
Speaker 2: are not quite as disposable as we are often led
Speaker 2: to believe. I say, my older three will keep buying.
Speaker 2: This is not necessarily as economical an option as I
Speaker 2: remember from like my days of buying school lunch, I
Speaker 2: mean partly just inflation of thirty years. But you know,
Speaker 2: they have more options, like the high school cafeteria has
Speaker 2: all sorts of a La Karte options, like much like
Speaker 2: going to a corporate cafeteria, So I have not limited that.
Speaker 2: I feel like, if you are choosing healthy things, I'm
Speaker 2: not going to sit here and micro manage your lunch choices.
Speaker 1: But I do know that Jasper buys the.
Speaker 2: Very expensive strawberry cut up fruit every day, and much
Speaker 2: as in the airport, that tends to be the most
Speaker 2: expensive produce option. So Alex and Henry are going to
Speaker 2: need lunches. We're going to have to figure out how
Speaker 2: to do that. Alex theoretically is making his own lunch,
Speaker 2: being older than eight years old. However, he does need
Speaker 2: a lot of supervision, as he will literally just put
Speaker 2: one sleeve of crackers in a bag and call it
Speaker 2: a day.
Speaker 1: So what, I.
Speaker 3: Think that's so funny and also like, I mean, not
Speaker 3: the best, not the worst. Maybe you know, it's like,
Speaker 3: can you at least throw a yogurt in there?
Speaker 2: Some cheese to go with those crackers's and crackers like
Speaker 2: cheese and crackers and raisins. I mean, yes, Grace, it's
Speaker 2: like a hiking thing that you'd bring with you. But
Speaker 2: I guess that's totally fine.
Speaker 3: With his lunch as being very repetitive. Could you do
Speaker 3: like all the whole week at once, like put five
Speaker 3: assembled bags like in the fridge?
Speaker 1: Maybe?
Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean we could, you know, he could totally
Speaker 2: do that. Well, I'll bring it up with him. I mean,
Speaker 2: I it doesn't take that much time, given how modular
Speaker 2: it is like to throw a pre like a cheese stick,
Speaker 2: a sleeve of crackers, a thing of raisins like a
Speaker 2: yogurt in a bag is not a huge thing.
Speaker 3: That's also not the worst lunch, by the way. I mean,
Speaker 3: he's got like a lot of food groups. There's at
Speaker 3: least some protein in there. And raisins are fruit reasons
Speaker 3: are fruit there just dried fruit. And we also do
Speaker 3: apple sauce packets sometimes, you know, as a way to
Speaker 3: get a little bit of extra fruit type substance into
Speaker 3: the child. Henry, I mean, I would like to figure
Speaker 3: out something I was a little healthier because he will
Speaker 3: eat food.
Speaker 2: But yeah, I don't know. I mean, the problem of
Speaker 2: being the kid behind the kid that has some more
Speaker 2: limitations is that you wind up pretty much eating the
Speaker 2: same thing because people just make the same stuff for
Speaker 2: the two of them. We'll see, we'll see how this
Speaker 2: all turns out. How about back to school stopping You
Speaker 2: guys have already been doing that. I assume, given that
Speaker 2: we're recording this shortly before you guys go back to school, we've.
Speaker 3: Done a lot of it. I mean I do a
Speaker 3: lot of it online, and the kids are more likely
Speaker 3: to just send me a link to something they want,
Speaker 3: and if it seems reasonable, I can check it off
Speaker 3: the list. I did make a big master list of
Speaker 3: all the stuff that we needed and that was helpful.
Speaker 3: We have uniforms and that's all done. I have to
Speaker 3: share that Annifl's school has this very specific dress code
Speaker 3: of shorts must be six point five inches or more
Speaker 3: in en seam, and I'm like, point five, what's it?
Speaker 1: The point five?
Speaker 3: But you know what, we procure them. They're also a
Speaker 3: lot of wear joggers, so that's comfy and nice. And
Speaker 3: I will say my one new discovery this year was
Speaker 3: the company Primary, which I feel like I've heard about
Speaker 3: on other podcasts and stuff, but I had never shopped there.
Speaker 3: Genevieve tends to be very picky about uniform bottoms, like
Speaker 3: I'll buy her the cute little skirts and she won't
Speaker 3: wear them. She'll only want to wear the little cartwheel
Speaker 3: bike shorts, and so she's not really supposed to wear
Speaker 3: bike shorts. And since she's entering this more official grade level,
Speaker 3: I was like, Okay, let's get some actual shorts. And
Speaker 3: Primary has like they're like gym shorts. They're not fancy,
Speaker 3: but they're like nice like cottony feeling material and stretchy,
Speaker 3: and she seemed to tolerate them more than most other
Speaker 3: more uniform like pieces. So it's my uniform tip.
Speaker 1: Yep.
Speaker 2: Yeah, shoes are always the thing, and I just have
Speaker 2: the older boys like pick out stuff online and I
Speaker 2: buy it and like half a size larger than what
Speaker 2: they're wearing. Ruths feet are an unorthodox size, like we
Speaker 2: have to uh, you know, and then she finds some
Speaker 2: shoes uncomfortable. So it's a bit of a process finding
Speaker 2: shoes for her, but it provides an opportunity. You have
Speaker 2: a discussion about how we sometimes make do with things
Speaker 2: that aren't perfect but are better than what we currently have,
Speaker 2: and sometimes, you know, we can always be on the
Speaker 2: lookout for better options, but need at least something. Yeah,
Speaker 2: we don't have uniforms because obviously we're in public school.
Speaker 2: Although I guess some public schools have uniforms, so maybe
Speaker 2: that's not the case.
Speaker 1: But we do not.
Speaker 2: Jasper will probably be getting some clothes. I noticed one
Speaker 2: of his favorite shirts had a giant hole in the
Speaker 2: elbow yesterday. But Sam and Alex may mostly he likes
Speaker 2: some Oh that what's that? The black dog is like
Speaker 2: one of those uh stores that's in like North.
Speaker 3: It's like Martha's Vineyard or Martha's Vineyard.
Speaker 2: Yeah, so it's like Vineyard Vines but a little bit
Speaker 2: less pricey, but similar type style. So he owns a
Speaker 2: lot of things from there, and then we just buy
Speaker 2: jeans and his size. Sam and Alex may mostly shop
Speaker 2: in the hand me downs of the older boy. The
Speaker 2: one issue with that is that Alex likes sweatpants mostly,
Speaker 2: and sweatpants do not pass down at all.
Speaker 1: That doesn't work.
Speaker 2: The elastic comes out of the waistband, it gets crusty,
Speaker 2: like its county like, it doesn't hold its elasticity, and
Speaker 2: they get holes in the knees. So we'll have to
Speaker 2: purchase for that. But you know, you win, Sammy loose
Speaker 2: and we now have like little boy black dress shoes
Speaker 2: in every single size.
Speaker 1: So there you go.
Speaker 2: And oh well, we'll do a quick PSA for We
Speaker 2: had this as a question a while ago of like
Speaker 2: what you need in a school emergency supply kit, things
Speaker 2: that you tend to get asked for last minute. So
Speaker 2: while you're doing your shopping, you might want to get
Speaker 2: some poster board because that often comes up. You could
Speaker 2: do yourself a favor and buy a trifold or poster
Speaker 2: board or two if a child has some sort of
Speaker 2: science project that they are going to need to present.
Speaker 2: And we have also found that white t shirts get
Speaker 2: requested for various things like that. You know, if they
Speaker 2: have a show that they all need to be wearing white,
Speaker 2: that's something that may come up.
Speaker 1: Or people do taid eye projects or things like that.
Speaker 3: That's fun, all right, Well, yes, stock up the poster awards.
Speaker 3: Totally agree. I think we still have a few more.
Speaker 3: I'll have to check on my stash. We're going to
Speaker 3: do a brief discussion activities because Lauren says.
Speaker 1: Say this is gonna be the endless episode.
Speaker 3: No, you wrote something like I cannot deal with activities
Speaker 3: yet I'm taking it one weekend time or something like that.
Speaker 2: Yeah, but you have become a travel sports parent and
Speaker 2: a competitive gymnastics parent.
Speaker 3: That happened. I feel like there's probably a prior episode
Speaker 3: where I was like, I'm not going to do this,
Speaker 3: and then like we tried it and we liked it,
Speaker 3: and the kids liked it, and now we've got for
Speaker 3: next year like two sports with like a competition traveling
Speaker 3: whatever element and I'm excited about it, for better or
Speaker 3: for worse. You know, the funny thing that I always
Speaker 3: hear people saying is like it will mess up our
Speaker 3: family dinner. But you guys know, I've discussed this. We
Speaker 3: don't have a good family like it's never been a
Speaker 3: reality for us to do a regular weeknight family dinner,
Speaker 3: mostly because Josh is not home reliably and on time
Speaker 3: for that, and so we're not actually losing much when
Speaker 3: it comes to that timeframe. I'm a little worried because
Speaker 3: this year's stuff often goes till eight forty five, which
Speaker 3: is like my bedtime. But you know what, again, we
Speaker 3: will figure that out. I am happy that my kids
Speaker 3: want to do things, and as long as they find
Speaker 3: them fun, I am happy to support them in their endeavors.
Speaker 3: The end.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 2: No, I think some wise people have said that for parenting,
Speaker 2: you should not say I would never do X, because
Speaker 2: your kids are about to never like someone has never
Speaker 2: never before, Like they're going to be into whatever it
Speaker 2: is that you have said you will never do so.
Speaker 1: Within reason, obviously, but you probably want to.
Speaker 2: Just figure out who your kids are as people before
Speaker 2: you want to impose your philosophies and lifestyle entirely on them.
Speaker 2: I think there's nothing wrong with being busy. I think
Speaker 2: it's my role as a parent to support my kid's interests.
Speaker 2: And I feel actually it would be kind of sad
Speaker 2: if a kid really wanted to do stuff and parents said,
Speaker 2: absolutely not, because we have to eat dinner at precisely
Speaker 2: six pm every single night, Monday through Friday. I mean,
Speaker 2: unless you, as a parent, are going to get eg
Speaker 2: up everything else in your life to make that happen.
Speaker 2: I think having family meals three times a week is great.
Speaker 2: Three times a week is habit. Do it Friday, Saturday
Speaker 2: and Sunday right or do Tuesday morning breakfast together. Change
Speaker 2: your work schedule to make that happen. If family meals
Speaker 2: matter to you, and then do Tuesday morning breakfast together
Speaker 2: and let the kid be on the team they want
Speaker 2: to be on. Sorry, I will get off my soapbox now.
Speaker 1: I love it. Well, how about you?
Speaker 3: How about your back to You're just not there yet,
Speaker 3: but once school does roll around, do you get a
Speaker 3: surge of like back to school liss energy at all?
Speaker 3: I do feel like for me it is like a
Speaker 3: more productive season. And also I like the shift of
Speaker 3: the rhythm from summer for us. I mean, I know
Speaker 3: people are like, well, summer's not slower for me, but
Speaker 3: for us, it is definitely slower. And then I kind
Speaker 3: of like like how it rubs up and changes, Like
Speaker 3: I crave those shifts, and so I'm excited for it.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean a lot of the stuff I do
Speaker 2: week to week is pretty similar. But I mean, I
Speaker 2: am planning to start the actual writing of my next
Speaker 2: book in the fall. I've been doing a lot of
Speaker 2: research over the summer, so I guess that will be
Speaker 2: a shift. And I'm training for a half marathon in
Speaker 2: late October, so that's kind of exciting. And yeah, so
Speaker 2: you know, I like the back to school energy. I
Speaker 2: like buying school supplies, but yeah, I don't know.
Speaker 1: I mean, the.
Speaker 2: Extra stuff does make life more challenging, but I just,
Speaker 2: you know, make sure that I have enough time to
Speaker 2: work each week.
Speaker 1: Take each week at a time.
Speaker 2: Don't think I'm necessarily going to set stuff and forget it,
Speaker 2: because with five kids, that never happens. But then I'm
Speaker 2: going to remember, like, oh, yeah, and summer was a
Speaker 2: lot less like that, right, We had weeks where there
Speaker 2: was almost zero activities, So I think, you know, I
Speaker 2: will keep that in mind during the weeks when I
Speaker 2: get a little bit annoyed.
Speaker 1: How much is going on?
Speaker 2: Well, so this has been a lot of back to
Speaker 2: school related topics. We have slightly a question related to that. So, Sarah,
Speaker 2: how much do you plan family travel around kids' activities
Speaker 2: or how much should you plan family vacations, et cetera
Speaker 2: around kid activities?
Speaker 3: Yeah, I don't have an answer for this. This is
Speaker 3: more a question that I ask on my website, so
Speaker 3: and I was interested in people's answers. In fact, we
Speaker 3: had one person very adamantly that she really did not
Speaker 3: plan unless it was the biggest tournament of the year
Speaker 3: or like some incredibly big milestone event of the season.
Speaker 3: She prioritized vacations and her kids are like elite level,
Speaker 3: like going to be college athletes, kind of like that realm.
Speaker 3: So for her to say that meant a lot other
Speaker 3: than I joked with my friend that like, well, maybe
Speaker 3: consider less talented. We can't afford that kind of lenience.
Speaker 3: Now I'm just kidding. I personally don't feel like I
Speaker 3: know what my policy yet is, but I will say
Speaker 3: that Cameron is for the second year in a row,
Speaker 3: missing the first week of soccer practice because we're going
Speaker 3: on family trips, so obviously we're not like Diehard must
Speaker 3: be at every single thing. And yet at the same time,
Speaker 3: if I see a tournament or something on the calendar,
Speaker 3: I sort of try not to put other stuff there.
Speaker 3: So I don't know, still learning, still figuring that out.
Speaker 3: I'm not going to give my definitive answer.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it hasn't really come up that much for us
Speaker 2: because you know, a lot of the activities have been
Speaker 2: school based, and so they're probably not going to have
Speaker 2: their major thing during the spring break or during the summer,
Speaker 2: during Christmas.
Speaker 1: And you know my kids.
Speaker 2: So the one thing we have had this year, Sam
Speaker 2: wants to run on the cross country team, and of
Speaker 2: course they're doing their ramp up in August, which is
Speaker 2: when we are on vacation. But he's going to go
Speaker 2: to a couple of the practice that he can, and
Speaker 2: I mean, he's a freshman and he hasn't done this before,
Speaker 2: so it's not like he's going to be running varsity anyway.
Speaker 2: So it's mostly like it's just to try it out.
Speaker 2: So we'll see what the policies.
Speaker 1: Are on that.
Speaker 2: But I am hoping that for the newbie freshmen joining
Speaker 2: the team just for fun. The policies maybe a little
Speaker 2: different than the people who are competing for the school
Speaker 2: in the various tournaments. So we shall see. But that's
Speaker 2: we're not taking our vacation.
Speaker 3: I mean, of all sports, that's one where you could
Speaker 3: very easily be handed a training plan and do it
Speaker 3: remotely to get ready for your season.
Speaker 1: And perhaps one.
Speaker 2: Should do that, Sarah, that would be good, and maybe
Speaker 2: a child could do more runs on their own and
Speaker 2: not when they are structured from the everyone else doing
Speaker 2: them around you.
Speaker 1: But you know we're not all our own people, all right.
Speaker 3: Well, Loves of the week, I have to give a
Speaker 3: school supply because of course mine is the Cocuyo Campus Notebook. Okay,
Speaker 3: that sounds fancy, but they're actually not like I think
Speaker 3: they're kind of like the Mead Spiral bound of Japan.
Speaker 3: They are like these little kind of like glue bound notebooks,
Speaker 3: and they're not terribly expensive. You can actually get them
Speaker 3: at like Barnes and Noble. They're way marked up, like
Speaker 3: they're way cheaper at Jetpens or maybe even on Amazon.
Speaker 3: I don't know, but they're just like great. They're like
Speaker 3: sixty or so pages the paper is lovely. They have
Speaker 3: a great form of ruling that I really like. They
Speaker 3: like lines with like almost like dots in the life.
Speaker 3: I can't explain it, but they're great. Annabel requested them specifically.
Speaker 3: She's like, I can you get me these for taking
Speaker 3: notes because for her school they they're basically on laptops,
Speaker 3: So they're like, use whatever paper supplies you feel will
Speaker 3: support you, but we are not going to tell you
Speaker 3: what to get. So thrilled to outfit her in Cocuyo
Speaker 3: campus notebooks. So if you have not tried them, recommend.
Speaker 2: I might have to put in an order. I'm always
Speaker 2: looking for a good notebook. I like spiral bound with
Speaker 2: a harder cover. Myself always cos or not that these
Speaker 2: are not that okay, well then maybe not. My love
Speaker 2: of the week is unexpected hand me down. So I
Speaker 2: was out in the garage like hunting through stuff, and
Speaker 2: I found a pair of crocs that fit Henry exactly.
Speaker 1: So that's helpful for.
Speaker 2: Going out in the yard to the pool or I
Speaker 2: guess walking on the sand to the beach.
Speaker 1: So I'm really.
Speaker 2: Glad that we have this pair of cracks and I
Speaker 2: don't have to buy a pair of sandals for him.
Speaker 1: It's all all good. Sometimes you win. You shopped your garage.
Speaker 2: I shopped my garage. I probably need to shop my garage.
Speaker 2: Shot my closets for more things I was getting. When
Speaker 2: I was getting Alex ready for camp, I found more
Speaker 2: pairs of size eight to ten shorts. I'm like, who
Speaker 2: even knew we had all these pairs of eight to
Speaker 2: ten shorts that still fit? So we packed those with them.
Speaker 2: He had extras, didn't have to buy more.
Speaker 1: All good. Well, this has been a best of both worlds.
Speaker 2: We've been talking all things back to school as we
Speaker 2: have for lo these many years, as our kids have
Speaker 2: on to low these many grades. So who even knows
Speaker 2: twenty twenty five back to School Extravaganza what we'll be
Speaker 2: talking about. But for now, this is this one and
Speaker 2: we will be back next week with more on making
Speaker 2: work and life fit together.
Speaker 3: Thanks for listening. You can find me Sarah at the
Speaker 3: shoebox dot com or at the Underscore Shoebox on Instagram,
Speaker 3: and you can.
Speaker 2: Find me Laura at Laura vandercam dot com. This has
Speaker 2: been the best of both worlds podcasts. Please join us
Speaker 2: next time for more on making work and life work together.