Ahhhh, finally. The kids are back at school, and now you’ve had a couple of weeks to get back into the swing of…whatever passes for normal around your house!
Chances are you’ve already adjusted to the back to school rush, but if you’ve just sent your child off on that big yellow bus for the first time or you’re just having trouble settling back INTO a routine after the relative laziness and chaos of summer vacation, here are a few tips to keep you rolling now that the thrill of the school year has worn off a little and the drudgery has begun.
First and foremost, unless you’re one of those disgustingly chirpy morning people (which I, obviously, am not!) I recommend you invest in the most obnoxious alarm clock you can find. Why? Because the sweet routine of getting up when YOU need to get up is over! It’s time to get used to living life on their schedule again, and if you didn’t spend the summer playing the “daycare before the 9 to 5 grind” game that 6:00 wake-up call comes pretty early. An obnoxious alarm clock, preferably left on the opposite side of the room, will go a long way toward getting you up and moving in the morning.
Mornings go a lot smoother if you get in a routine. I was always a big fan of getting up early enough to sneak back into the kids’ beds for a snuggle, but only for a couple of minutes. Then I grabbed their clothes (which we laid out the night before), tossed them their way and headed downstairs to make breakfast and pack lunches.
Yes, theoretically I probably should have packed those the night before, but then the sandwich bread gets stale/soggy, the warm things got cold and…well, it just wasn’t worth it.
From that point on things usually flow pretty smoothly. Everyone stumbles blindly to the table, propping their heads up while they shovel cereal in. By the time teeth have been brushed, shoes have been found and backpacks are ready to roll everyone is bright eyed, bushy tailed and ready to at least consider starting their day.
Now what?
If you have a pile of housework waiting for you, I recommend tossing that first load of laundry in the washer before you do much of anything else. I never could understand why laundry multiplies in dark places, but that was always the biggest challenge for me. And getting laundry and other miscellaneous nasties out of the way before ten or eleven frees the rest of the day up to the realm of possibilities…and really, who can complain about that?