Reentry Report
STARTED: Soccer. Gymnastics. The first of many 8:45 pm pickups happened yesterday without incident.
TODAY: A’s school
STILL TO COME: C & G’s school.
WORKING: I think A feels ready to go. It’s quite an adjustment (bigger school, basically all new peers, different systems) but I am confident in her abilities to manage it!
NOT WORKING: Sleep. Unfortunately, G is still not on a reasonable schedule (she went to bed after 10 last night) and I came to the realization that she will need to go to bed BEFORE A/G return home from their later sports because otherwise all of us are going to be hideously sleep deprived forever.
I really want to figure out how we can accomplish that, and I also have grand plans to try for a more ‘vertical ownership’ of the mornings, where 3/5 weekdays I manage everything (and Josh can sleep in or go running or do whatever) and 2/5 Josh does. Maybe this weekend we will create this plan. Otherwise in order to run in the mornings I’ll have to be home at 6:30 AM and that sounds brutal for an everyday thing (though I guess I could do later runs on my work from home days). There are just a lot of moving parts to think about.
NOT READY: 2/3 kids still need shoes. Not sure how that happened . . . but will also have to attempt to remedy over the weekend. A’s school presented us with school supply requests yesterday, to be brought in by Monday (sigh. WHY the late breaking school supply requests!?).
ALSO NOT WORKING: My eating habits have been utter garbage and thus I have felt like garbage. Working on getting back on the protein train and also just planning/packing so that I am not relying on whatever I can scrounge up on a moment’s notice. I know *how* to do this, I just have to do it!
And with that, here we go – day #3 of call week, day #3 of reentry week, and somehow it will all work out. Repeating to myself that this is just the messy transition. Though I am standing by my desire never to travel (ESPECIALLY going west) the week before school starts ever again.
Off to run. Here is the latest Hobonichi cover release: calming, don’t you think?
18 Comments
Welcome home!! Traveling west is very hard, esp for insomniacs and folks who already wake up very early. I’m skipping a major conference in my field for this reason….just isn’t worth it at this stage of life.
We also have a lot of transition. I’m back on contract tomorrow, LG (now 20!!) is getting grandma’s old car and moving into new apartment, and Tiny Boy has nothing to do before school starts in 2 weeks….which means childcare dilemma for me. Sigh.
Yes, this all sounds complicated! It will all work out eventually, but I can see how it would be really tough right now.
For high school, we never get school supply lists until after school starts- which means that the stores are completely cleaned out by then. Yesterday I went to Target to get a binder for my daughter, and all they had left was BRIGHT YELLOW. She was not pleased.
Anyway- good luck with everything! It will definitely get easier when you get through this week of call.
This does sound complicated! Is there a young girl in your neighborhood that could come over for an hour and just be available while G is sleeping and you are getting the others from their activities? You have a lot of moving pieces to figure out and it’s further complicated by Josh’s unpredictable schedule… But you will figure it out!
Our 6yo’s bedtime had slipped a bit during the Olympics so now I am trying to rein it back in a bit, but then we’ll go to my parents for a week and he’ll stay with them for a week and I know bedtime will slip a bit there because he doesn’t have to be up at 6 so he can stay up a bit later/sleep a bit later… And I don’t really like to put rules around schedules at my parents because they are doing us a major favor by watching our kids for a week and in the grand scheme of things, it probably doesn’t matter if his bedtime slips a bit. We’ll get back on track pretty quickly once school starts. But for him, he needs to be in bed by 8 so he can read for 10-15 minutes on his own… which he is very obsessed with and it’s a struggle to get him to put the book down which is a great problem to have but also he needs to go to sleep by 8:30 or he is very grouchy when I wake him at 6:20. My kids both seems to need about 9.5-10 hours of sleep at night which other parents have told me it higher than normal to which I shrug my shoulders because it’s all I know in terms of sleep needs (and I admittedly have higher sleep needs, too).
Good luck figuring it out!
Seconding this idea – when my oldest has a late practice and we have a conflict where the non-pickup parent is also tied up, we have our 13yo neighbor come sit and listen for the younger two (or sometimes, put our 7yo to bed!). I’d rather pay her then deal with a late, protracted bedtime for my 7yo and the ensuing grumpiness the next morning!
I think someone in the house is a great idea, and maybe G will go to sleep easier for them? T’s best friend struggles with sleep and I can often get her down.
I think 9.5 to 10 hours is really normal, T (who I think is a year older) definitely needs 10+. I think loads of kids are just tired. T started school today and was asleep by 7:45 last night, he spent a half day at basketball camp and think it just wore him out. Hoping for some early bedtimes now that school is back.
We are living in Europe and brought my oldest to the US for college. We go back home Sunday and the kids start school on Tuesday. I’m already dreading it, but telling myself the first week is really transition anyway- there isn’t much work required. Coming to the US has never been a problem, but going back is so hard. Even when I do everything right, it takes me a week to feel semi recovered.
Good luck to A on her new school!
Good luck to A! T started today and the only comms from the school were to stay behind the cones at dropoff… I keep expecting some sort of detailed information, but nothing.
Totally have the same sleep conundrum! My 8 year old gets home from gymnastics at 830ish and my 6 and 3 year old hear her, jump out of bed and run downstairs. The 3 year old is pretty chill demeanor and also still naps at preschool, so she settles back down easy enough. The 6 year old is another story. Last night she got so jazzed up and over tired and was throwing a tantrum in bed at 930 keeping everyone awake. But, it’s also really hard to get a 6 year old fully asleep before 830… and my 8 year old needs to eat when she gets home (at practice since 4 pm), so I can’t send her straight to bed. Anywho, just lamenting with you, I’m not sure how we’ll solve for this during the school year, except that the schedule will shift to some weekend practices so it’s only one school night a week. We may just all be up late every Tuesday night!? meh!
We have 8:45 ending gym Tues, 8:45 ending soccer Weds, 8:45 ending BOtH Thursday (carpooling for soccer) and 8:45 ending gym Friday. I wish they had some weekend gym practice instead but nope.
Ooh that’s a brutal time on Fridays. Wonder if families end up skipping because it’s prime family time?
My son has had Friday evening swim practice pretty consistently for years now. I guess the difference is it’s not “required” for him (practice is offered more times per week than most kids actually go, something like 7-10x/ week, so some picking and choosing is possible for most people). But given our other activities and his other sports some seasons, Friday night was often a staple practice for him. I actually kind of liked it, just from the standpoint of that it isn’t a “school night”/ no worries about getting up the next day, etc. so it felt like a little weight off. So it wasn’t all bad! But yes, sometimes definitely conflicted with social things (bday parties, sleepover invites, etc) or family time.
I’m so grateful of this logistics preview since your kids are a few years ahead of my 3. This is totally where our schedule is headed within the next couple of years. All very fun, but definitely requires some strategy to make it all work well / still find time to eat and sleep and do HW (plus juggle parent work schedules!). Fortunately the practice time doubles as friend time for my oldest (also an Annabelle, by the way), so at least her friend cup stays very full!
We’ll be following along and will share any winning strategies or systems we come up with! Right now, carpool is still my biggest recommendation, although you’ve got a much shorter drive, it’s so nice when they just magically appear back at home after practice, plus it’s fun to get to know their friends better when we drive too.
Hope first day of new school was great for your A!
Just read The Wedding People because I saw you liked it. I loved it! Any others you have really enjoyed lately?
Sound machines have been our friend for staggered bedtimes. You will get this all figured out! You can do this! (cheering you on!)
We are also changing schedule a bit. now I have to finish running by 7am the latest as I need to walk Lizzy to school at 7:10. 10 min to get her ready and pack her lunch. So I am going to bed earlier and getting up before 4:30am (still without an alarm) so I can still have an hour before the start of my run and get the run done before 7am. We will have to change again once my runs get longer some days of the week, we will improvise. I need to fit strength/yoga after work, trying it this week.
Food! yes, meal prep is the key. Always have something ready to eat so you don’t rush to packaged food. I’ve been making one grain, 1-2 beans, a sauce, air fried tofu, over the weekend, so I can always throw something together for lunch/snack. Husband is always eating that, which is extra bonus. You can definitely do it, maybe schedule 2 hrs over the weekend to meal prep?
Oh my gosh yes, traveling west is so much harder than traveling east? Why is that? Hawaii is literally the only place we can travel to where we lose hours on the way home, and I am so struck by how hard coming home was. I didn’t even feel like I totally go off CA time (I was going to bed around 10pm and waking up around 6:30am), so I was shocked by how hard last week was. I hope it gets better for all of you soon!
Call week AND re-entry week — you are just jumping in with both feet!
I feel this paragraph with every fiber: “My eating habits have been utter garbage and thus I have felt like garbage. Working on getting back on the protein train and also just planning/packing so that I am not relying on whatever I can scrounge up on a moment’s notice. I know *how* to do this, I just have to do it!”
And we are in a bad sleep pattern too. My kid and I went on vacation in a different time zone and even though we’re home now, we’re still in that time zone. Ugh. I know we should be scaling back bedtime in preparation for school but it’s so hard.
Uff, I don’t envy any working parents trying to get everything scheduled so it works like clockwork. Good luck.