Happy Back to School Season! Finally!

It feels like it’s been 1,000 years since the kids were last back in school right?

Ok. Well maybe school hasn’t started for you yet. Or maybe you’re like me, and are homeschooling so school starts whenever you say it starts….

Don’t get me wrong, I love the summer. I love the break, I love the open calendar. But every time around August I feel like I’m about to pull my hair out because I need rhythm. We’ve had our fun, I’ve taken us to as many local stay-cation places as I can think of and we’ve gone on a few family vacations. Bedtimes have been extremely loose, screen time limits have been nonexistent and ice cream has held a permanent place in our freezer for far too many months.

And now, before we know it, our kids are rushing through Target getting new backpacks, new lunch boxes, new clothes (how did they grow so much in just 3 months?!) and all the new school supplies. Plus, this year, they’re still getting matching masks and a few extra bottles of hand sanitizer. It’s stressful.

For those of us mommas who homeschool, maybe we aren’t tearing down Target’s door but we are shopping curriculums, creating nature play plans and figuring out what co-ops we’re going to participate in this year while also navigating what that might look like when our family is practicing different social measure than another’s when it comes to this global pandemic.

This year, just like last year, is creating a lot of fatigue…for everyone. But our kids express themselves in a completely different way than we do. In fact, they don’t have the same history and memory longevity to understand this as anything completely uncommon because they’ve only lived on this planet for a few years. But they see the stress on us, they see how we are handling our current load and they are taking their emotional queue from us.

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I know you feel it, especially when we all just want our kids to be with their friends, be safe, and be kind. It feels like the simple hopes are hard to come by these days when we adults can’t even respect each other. And beyond that, we’re expecting our children to adapt and be considerate about global things going on when they may have additional stresses that are coming at them from home!

It’s a hard world for us big humans right now, but our little humans need our help in learning what the heck HOPE is. And we may not be able to show hope to them well right now, because we don’t know what it looks like either.

But guess what? You can do it. You can walk humbly beside your kiddo, help them process what is going on in the world, which actually will really be helping you process what’s going on in the world.

‍“Anything that’s human is mentionable, and anything that is mentionable can be more manageable. When we can talk about our feelings, they become less overwhelming, less upsetting, and less scary. The people we trust with that important talk can help us know that we are not alone.”

― Fred Rogers

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‍Kids are resilient. Far more resilient than us adults. And if we equip them with humility and hope today, they’ll be creating a whole world of little Mr. Rogers all over the place, being compassionate and caring for everyone.

How do I know this? What evidence do I have of this?

I know because this isn’t my family’s first rodeo in a world turned upside down.

See, in 2018, our oldest child was diagnosed with an extremely rare and aggressive form of malignant cancer called Ewing’s Sarcoma. She was only five and we were completely wrecked.

We lived more days inside the hospital than outside, we wore masks all the time, we sanitized the heck out of ourselves and anyone who we allowed to enter our circle. We lived in fear every day. We tried to help a little person who was losing her hair, her muscle structure, and her strength, reconcile the horrible sickness going on around her with the hope of living life and moving forward and growing.

So I get it.

I really do.

In an effort to encourage you I’m going to be sharing with you more personal journal entries especially around the topics of curating an intentional family rhythm. That is, intentional, consistent ways to be eye to eye and shoulder to shoulder with your little people without any big plans, no rushing to some activity.

When I bring the idea of this up to friends of mine who haven’t quite created a rhythm yet, it’s always met with a, “when are you starting!?”

It sounds like you want it too. You want to figure out how to have hope for yourself while parenting and loving and teaching hope to your little people. And what use would everything we’ve been through if I didn’t share what I learned with you.

So I guess it’s starting now.

I want to leave each one of these posts with a “Hope Tip.” These are tangible SUPER EASY ways to connect with your kids that takes you NO TIME at all and gives them SO much comfort and safety.

Hope Tip:

As you begin a new week, and as the steady demand on your family’s time grows and grows find a time to do this simple practice at least 3 times this week (we do it at bedtime when kids are more open to talking and thinking):

‍Highs and Lows: ask your kid what their high and their low of the day was. Look them in the eye, let them take some time to think about it. Don’t interrupt. Ask questions.

‍This simple practice is the beginning step of letting them know you see them and want to know about their day. And the more consistently you do it, the more they’ll look at their day through that lens and be ready to share it with you. Instant communication builder!

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Bring it in for a fist bump. You’ve got this!