It’s only been a few weeks since we’ve been back in school. Already, summer feels like a distant memory. It could be that fall has arrived fast and furious this year in the Midwest (no complaints here) so sweating in the heat feels like it was forever away.
The fall weather has been just as fast and furious as the school commitments and to dos. It’s my first year with a kid in school. We have had some ups and downs. But mostly, we both just look like zombies trying to figure out our new schedule and routine.
Which has led us to the inevitable September squeeze – the beginning of the school year where you just start to feel like you have it all together, and then you don’t.
The first week or two back in school doesn’t feel so bad. It feels like putting on an old shoe that you haven’t worn for a season or two. The parts that you wore in feel just like home, and it feels comforting because you know it so well.
Maybe the schools do this more for the parents than the kids, because then suddenly it feels like you’re off to the races. The paperwork starts to pile up, along with the homework, the schedules that seem to change every single day, and the other random requests that come through (hello, spirit week!).
As part of this, you still have the other responsibilities on your plate. The totally fun stuff, like the laundry, the grocery shopping, the errand running, the cooking, the cleaning. None of that goes away, but it easily gets pushed to the side so you can manage everything else that feels like it’s going sideways.
For me, one of the areas that seems to fall to the bottom of the list the fastest is dinner. Because it always feels like there’s something that can be thrown together from ingredients we have in the house. At some point, that doesn’t always work. (And let’s face it, you can only pull off pancakes for dinner as a super fun treat so many times.)
If your back-to-school dinner system (or any system related to the school year) has fallen apart already, you’re not alone. It’s just inevitable as life shifts at the speed of a charging bull. Luckily, there are easy ways to get it back on track.
You Don’t Have to Do Everything Well
Take a breath. And give yourself a high five. (If you’re coordinated enough, do it at the same time!)
Because while you feel like you’re failing, you likely are not. The brain likes to do a funny thing where it focuses on the parts that aren’t going well, because it wants to prepare for disaster. That is unlikely, especially when you’re talking about scrambling over a forgotten permission slip or running out of the kids’ favorite snacks in the middle of the week.
Instead, think about what is going well. Some days, there may not be much. But hey, maybe the dog got fed breakfast and dinner. The kids didn’t fight heading to the car or bus that morning. And you actually got to drink your coffee while it’s hot.
Taking a moment to appreciate what’s going right or feels good can mean that you start to see more of it – instead of focusing on everything that feels like it’s not.
When you’re managing it all – and dealing with a shift to your household in the middle of it – it’s going to feel like chaos. So cut yourself a break.
Try Weekly Table, On Us.
Your 14-day free trial gets you started. Use code ITSONUS at checkout and get a full month, free. That’s six weeks of getting your evenings back.
You Also Don’t Have to Do It All
“You can have it all!” became a mantra for many millennial women, which led them to being the homemaker AND working out of the home, too. Along the way, it just became a thing where the woman continued to manage most of the work at home.
Not saying that there aren’t households, or partners, who help out and do a lot. However, the data shows that women carry more than 70% – with some studies suggesting as high as 80% – of the mental load at home. This is the invisible labor of running the home. The unending running of mental task lists, like remembering when appointments need to be scheduled or that the blue shirt needs to be washed so it can be worn for spirit day or that the milk is running low.
It’s no wonder burn out is happening more often for women.
But here’s the good news: you don’t have to do it all. As you look at the mountain of tasks in front of you for managing the back-to-school season, it doesn’t have to be all on you.
That’s why we built Weekly Table. Because even though my sister and I are both moms and in different life stages, we felt the squeeze of what it meant to carry it. Of keeping track of what’s in the fridge and the pantry, and battling over what’s for dinner day in and day out.
Weekly Table does it for you. Each week, your meal plan is built based off your recipes (or the ones we love to cook for our families) and delivered to you. On the day you choose. Your grocery list? Ready to be shopped, organized by category. And finally, you have a way to track why in the world you bought two bunches of cilantro this week (because there have been so many times that I buy it and forget why).
It would be nice if you could outsource the laundry to an app, but I don’t think we’re quite there yet. So instead, rely on the tools that exist to help you – and let it.
Get your first meal plan delivered today. Sign up for your free subscription to Weekly Table and see why moms love having dinner decided for them.
