My kids don’t start school for another two weeks. But many kids, including Sarah’s, are already well into the school year. So for this week’s episode of Best of Both Worlds, we bring you our annual back-to-school bonanza!
We discuss logistics — mine give me a headache just thinking about it, so I’m trying not to think about it yet. Five kids in four schools! Sarah has wisely streamlined this, putting all three kids in one school. We talk kids’ activities, school supply shopping (including a round-up of the best backpacks), morning routines, and how we deal with kids’ tech.
Please give the episode a listen! And in the comments, let us know anything new you’re trying this year. Sarah’s school is finally offering lunch so she is definitely opting for this on Mondays!
Thanks for answering my question! We just booked our this trip on Sunday so it is actually happening. Woo hoo! We spent 5 days with my parents this past week as we visit them every August for a long trip so they have a sense for their schedule and how picky the oldest one is when it comes to eating. 😉 My mom also knows what baby-proofing she needs to do before December. Our oldest never got into everything but the youngest is the total opposite – which is probably more typical.
It helps to hear that Alex is a picky eater – makes me feel a bit less alone. I keep hoping it will improve and we have gotten him to eat a few more things, but overall he is incredibly picky and will fish out the smallest bits of vegetables in things I make – like carrots I had blitzed in the food processor and put in pasta sauce. I haven’t thought about what we will do for lunch when he starts school in 2023! Bleh.
@Lisa – congrats on buying the tickets! And yes, selective eating is pretty common in little kids, and some are more selective than others. The good part of having five kids is that I know there’s nothing I did wrong and I don’t feel like a kid’s selective eating means I’m a bad parent. It’s just what he’s doing right now. He has other gifts — he taught himself to read during the pandemic and can do pretty advanced math problems in his head — and adventurous eating just isn’t one of them 🙂
Just returned from a couple weeks ago and enjoyed listening to this! I always miss podcasts when I travel.
I appreciate your more relaxed attitude about phones for your kids. My boys both got phones this past year at barely 12 and 13 (though also had ipads etc prior that could do much of the same). I feel like so many articles and podcasts and blogs I’ve read lately tend to lean so hard the other way on this topic, where the parents are saying stuff like, “my kids will never have a phone!!” or “we are happy to be the only parents who actually will lay down the law and resist these awful phones!!” I’ve ended up feeling kind of bad sometimes about the fact that our kids DO have and DO use their phones (admittedly, quite a lot…)…. but it definitely seems like the norm overall, and as you mentioned, their entire social life revolves around them nowadays! My older son has one friend who has no phone, no device, and it’s literally impossible for my son to even contact him. So this kid is rarely involved in plans, because he’s just so out of the loop. Anyway, just commenting to say thanks for offering a more moderate alternative view to the extreme anti-phone movement. I agree, phones have their issues, and I don’t love everything about my kids having phones. But overall, I feel like it’s something we have to learn to live with and adapt to as part of modern day life. I still find it challenging to navigate and manage sometimes, but I’m not convinced that completely avoiding phones is the answer, either.