Surviving the 2020-2021 School Year, Part 3

So. Many messages. So many texts. So many Notifications. So many papers. What’s a parent to do?

Yup. Save it. It can wait. Here are my tips and tricks to keep all of those notifications in check:

1. You don’t have to open every email as soon as it comes in. If my children are home with me for the day, I typically ignore them until I have at least 15-20 minutes to sit down and actually focus on them and process them. If they are physically at school, I’ll scan the subject to make sure there is not an urgent need such as illness, early dismissal, or a time sensitive request from a teacher. Otherwise, it waits. And it may wait until tomorrow. If that’s hard for you to do, I assure you – it will get easier!
2. If you’re not quite willing or able to literally ignore the email notification, you open it…but you can’t actually deal with or complete some random requested task…now what? Just hope you remember later? Or that they send another one? Um…with so many things to juggle…I don’t recommend that tactic. SO – here’s how to handle that…
   • Hit the snooze button. Yep, email programs have that! Or some of them…You can save for later, snooze til morning, or next week…you can even set a custom time frame.
   • Hit ‘mark as unread’ – then, next time you open your inbox, it looks like a new email.
   • Print it. yup. If you’re a paper trail type person, just print it! And if you have a sec, highlight the thing you need to do. Just a line or two.
   • Copy important details/things to do onto your calendar, a phone reminder, or Google Keep. Or, tell Alexa to remind you! We’ll talk about Google Keep later this week. It’s one of my favorite things!
   • If you have a chalkboard or dry erase board, or some other central to do list…jot it down.
   • Forward to yourself for later, or to the other parent. What? You mean you can pass that responsibility on to someone else? Yes, darlin’. You most certainly can. Send it with “I’d appreciate it if you’d handle this for us. Thanks so much!” or some other kind words, depending on the situation. This can be a very good habit to get into for those of you making magic with blended families and multiple households!
3. Don’t take it out of their hands until your ready. You’re the grown up here, ok? I know, our children have lots to juggle, too, depending on their age. But hear me…YOU are the grown up. My kids used to try to hand me papers in the car to sign, look at,etc….didn’t matter if we were on the way home, to an appointment, had a pet or infant in the car…that just…well… you know. It wasn’t pretty. If your children like to hand you papers to sign, complete, review, etc, at any random moment that is convenient for them…you have three options:
   • Take it when they give it to you. While you’re on the phone. While you’re prepping dinner. While you’re working on the best blog series EVER (😂 see what I did there? 😂), while you’re helping your other kid with quadratic equations…See the problem here? Great…let’s move on to the other two options.
   • Have a central location for them to put important things. Make sure they are, though, in the habit of TELLING you that they put something there. Think of it as a turn in tray! I tried this. It doesn’t work for me. Too many people in my home don’t pay attention, or care, what is important, what is not, and where they move it. Although, as I type this…I’m thinking I MIGHT just try it again…I have a nice letter tray holding blank paper…I might just repurpose that…maybe…first, I’d have to find somewhere else for the paper…maybe the paper can go in the sharpie drawer (yep, I have a problem)…but then I have to move the sharpies (🐿) If this works for you, AMEN! GO FOR IT!
   • Ok, third option…and this is my favorite. Now, hear me out…I’m not saying you should be inconsiderate and just interupt your children whenever you see fit, ok? I’m saying YOU are the adult. When it’s time for you to sit down and look at those papers, let them know that you are ready for them and to please bring them along with a pen or pencil or whatever you might need. They can do this. It’s called taking responsibility and owndership. I have my children stand with me WHILE I complete these papers so that I can ask questions, in case THEY have to sign or complete any portion of it, AND so I can hand RIGHT BACK to them to put in the appropriate place – usually a particular folder, and then IN THE BACKPACK IT GOES. AND they or I IMMEDICATELY throw away any unnecessary papers. Things for us to keep, go into a keepsake box or their school binders that I keep at home. This takes anywhere from 2-10 minutes, depending on how much stuff we’re looking at…and saves us SO MUCH time, energy and frustration later!

Sounds easy right? Maybe you’re already doing some of these things, and they’re working. Maybe you’ve tried them and they didn’t work? If you have a different solution, I’d LOVE to hear it!

Also, I want to encourage you…just because something didn’t work for you in the past, doesn’t mean it won’t work now. We all change, we all grow, our circumstances change. Our children grow and mature. If you want to make the communication system better and more consistent in your home, talk with your family or just make a decision to stick with it! YOU CAN DO THIS, I KNOW YOU CAN! I am the worst clutter bug EVER in existence…if I didn’t force myself into these habits, I’m certain my husband would have run screaming, and my children would be in tears on a weekly, if not daily basis. If I can do this, so can you!!!

I’ll be back soon with more school year survival tips!

Much love to you!

Grab you some super amazing hair accessories HERE.

View Original Post in this series here, with links to each individual post at the bottom of the post. Thanks for visiting!