Back to School Sanity – Isn’t Worth It!

Back to School Chaos

The anxiety that comes with back-to-school preparation for three children is wild. Between the age disparity and chosen styles, I am forced to shop at different stores for the same things because they all have a need to be unique… bleh! Is it too early to tell them that none of it matters and they’ll change their mind 100 times in the future about what they like and who they want to be? Probably too soon! So, I will stay quiet while I drive my white mom SUV around town and run in and out of overcrowded, overpriced stores to purchase “required” items on the back-to-school list.

It’s really easy at the beginning of August to become overwhelmed with all the things we Moms have to accomplish, but if I’ve learned anything in my almost 14 years of momming, it’s that I don’t need to become overwhelmed. One of the greatest things I’ve learned, albeit still practicing, is the art of saying no. It’s not my strongest attribute yet, but hopefully, it will be. I have learned to say no. Not necessarily to my children, nor to the school when they ask for more snacks, highlighters, tissues, etc. I’ve learned to say no to the overwhelm. I’ve learned to recognize when it’s all becoming too much. To stop and breathe. To say, “Is this more important than my sanity?”. The answer almost always is a resounding NO!

It can be really challenging to say No. I have always struggled as a recovering people pleaser to saying no. Whether it’s things I absolutely didn’t want to do or things I really wanted to do but just knew I wouldn’t be able to do without causing myself and those I love extreme stress. No, it is very hard for me to say, but something that really helped was learning to pause and ask myself, Is this more important than your sanity? It just isn’t.

My kids needed all of that crap on the list. The folders, the binders, the markers, the crayons, the ugly school polos, etc., but in the grand scheme of life, none of it was more important than my sanity. I knew I couldn’t continue like I have every year stressing the first day of school. So this is what I did to make it better.

1. I shopped early. I went out and bought most of the things they needed in July. I didn’t wait for any crazy sales or deals, and I definitely didn’t wait until the weekend before school started.
2. I did the best I could. I couldn’t find large boxes of tissues, so I bought two small ones. I have officially stopped trying to impress elementary school teachers by showing them how well I follow a list. Newsflash: No one cares!
3. I started asking myself, Is it more important than your sanity? Is it more important than your kids’ sanity? Absolutely not. What I remember from my school days was being a crazy mix of nerves and excitement. I wanted to talk to my kids about that.
4. I planned something fun. The Sunday before school started, we brought the kids to the skating rink. It’s something my kids really enjoy. They’re very competitive as am I and it allowed us to just relax and enjoy the last day of summer, together, as a family.

This absolutely may not work for you as a parent but because I am a crazy, planning Type A lunatic of a mom, it helped me. I’m hoping that somewhere down the line it helps you too. I promise you, the fact that I didn’t bring my daughters teacher highlighters because I only bought one pack instead of two, wasn’t even noticed… and if it was, I don’t care because it absolutely wasn’t more important than my sanity.