Another school year is coming to an end, and parents everywhere are looking at their June calendars wondering how everything is going to fit into a few short weeks.
If you have younger kids, there are special dress up days, field trips, park trips and assemblies being planned. You have to look to see what warm-weather clothing still fits, find bucket hats and figure out what the best sunscreen to send with your kid with.
For parents of teens in high school, exams are lurking around the corner as are graduation events, prom plans and a stack of final papers that have to be polished. The stress is already starting.
Meanwhile, your work is looking to figure out how to update their meeting schedule before everyone is on holidays, budgets need spending or reviewing, and meanwhile you just want to be gardening in the backyard.
Wow, June, we thought May was busy.
Here are a few tips, from one parent to another, to make June a little bit easier.
- The calendar is everything. Mark every special event, PD Day, exam day, work shift, meeting, and appointment into your personal calendar but also on one where the entire family can see it, whether that’s a wall calendar or a shared digital calendar. I have to do the latter ASAP.
- If you can push off an appointment, it might not be a bad idea. Sure, when you booked the eye exam months ago, the date seemed fine. Guess what. It’s about to conflict with something. Change it when possible (don’t change it if there’s a long wait of course!)
- There is going to be something that crops up last minute. Supplies for the project that’s due tomorrow. An outfit swap for an event. No matter how much planning you do, there’s always something. Try to encourage as much communication with the kids and school as possible to be prepared, accept that there may be last minute things happening and ask for other help, or just buy some extra bristol board right now.
- ‘Easy’ is your friend. That means easy dinners are always acceptable. Create a sandwich bar, large pasta bake that will result in leftovers, slow cooker meals - anything to save you time. You’ll need it because you’ll probably be heading out to the store for bristol board later.
- Keep sleep schedules on track as best as you can. It will make a huge difference.
In the meantime, because everyone’s schedules are hectic you may turn to screens more. Maybe you won’t notice when your teen is on them for an extra amount of time, or when younger kids play ‘just one more game’ because you’re busy stapling something to the bristol board.
Be mindful of screentime, but realistic. This resource ‘Four Tips for Managing Your Kids’ Screentime’ is a good starting point.
Remember that the busy days of June will fly by and you’ll get through them and then summer vacation can begin.
That takes a whole other set of plans.
Good luck parents, we’ve got this!
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