Impossible as it is to believe, back-to-school season is here already. And amidst all of the school supply lists, new teacher anxieties, and shopping for shoes that actually fit, you might be thinking about what, when, and how your family will eat this school year.
Something about seeing those first weeks of school on the calendar makes a lot of us start striving to get an A+ in family meals. Searches for topics like “meal prep” and “organization” go up right around this time of year. Parents brainstorm cute packed lunch ideas, vow to prep nutritious make-ahead breakfasts, and trade their favorite recipes for kid-friendly dinners at camp pick-up and summer baseball practices. Of course, if you’re anything like me, you’ll start off strong…and then by the time October hits, along with the full weight of the school year schedule, things will more or less go back to whatever “normal” looks like in your household.
That’s because we can only do so much, and while it’s great to have goals for improving your family meal routines, we tend to start the school year with more optimism than realism. It’s okay to be honest with yourself about how much time and energy you’ll really have to manage planning, shopping, prep, cooking, and cleanup. Instead of trying to set up new, ambitious systems this year, try these tips to help you successfully navigate the transition from summer to school:
- Start with favorites. Somehow, the start of the school year makes people think “this is a great time to bookmark some new recipes!” Can I be honest for a second? Don’t! The first couple of weeks back are a time to focus on getting back to routine, managing wake-ups and the start of extracurriculars, and helping kids process new teachers, homework expectations, and all the other things that go with a new school year. This is a good time to check in with your kids about what they’d like to see on the menu! Together you can make a list of everyone’s favorite meals, then choose the things you know you can make without a lot of time or effort. That’s your meal plan for the foreseeable future.
- Plan for down days. The kids aren’t the only ones who need some time to adjust. Parents often feel just as burned out as their children, by the end of the first week or two! Build in 1-2 days each week for leftovers, takeout, or “fend for yourself” nights, so you can take a breather when you really need one. In our house, the Friday of the first full week of school tends to be when exhaustion hits, so we usually plan to order pizza and garlic knots from our favorite spot and have a family movie night.
- Ease into the routine. Seasoned parents know that this one is both important, and easier said than done – but trust me, waiting until the first day of school to change the wake-up, bedtime, and meal times in your house is going to make things harder for everyone. About a week before the first day, start making small adjustments, like serving dinner at the time you’ll usually eat during the school year, having kids practice making their own breakfasts or packed lunches, or waking kids slightly earlier to start pushing them towards their school schedule. (Bedtime will probably naturally follow that as they’ll start to get tired.) And if you’re hoping to make some tweaks to other household arrangements this year, like switching up responsibilities for chores or negotiating use of devices differently, now is the time to sit down, talk about those changes, and start working on putting them in place.
- Keep the calendar in check. One of the reasons back-to-school can feel so daunting, especially when it comes to dinner, is that the calendar starts to fill rapidly. By the end of the first month back, kids are usually full steam ahead with sports, music and drama rehearsals, and other extracurricular activities. But as our friend Dr. Steve Durant points out, it’s important to make sure that the activities your kids are involved in align with your family’s values, and don’t compromise your ability to spend time together. If the calendar has you constantly on the run, and dinner, downtime, and bedtime are all getting squeezed by external commitments, it might be time to re-evaluate.
- Have easy options ready to go. The best laid plans can still fall apart, which is why it’s always a good idea to keep some simple solutions on hand. Depending on your family’s preferences, that might mean stocking tortillas, cheese, and beans for quick quesadillas; always having eggs and bread in the house for scrambled eggs on toast; keeping a favorite heat-and-eat soup or chili in the pantry or freezer; or reaching for a bag of pasta and a jar of sauce. These “fallback” meals don’t have to be creative or fabulous, just reliable, tasty, and fast, so you can still feel in control of dinner when things go haywire, instead of dinner controlling you.
Ready for another school year? You got this – and if you need more help, check out our Back-to-School Hub or listen to our latest podcast episode!
Food
Nothing says easy, kid-friendly, comforting back-to-school food like a fast stovetop mac and cheese!
Clancy Harrison’s Easy Mac and Cheese
Fun
Start the school year with a new dinner game! This guessing game tests how well you know each other — you might be surprised!
Conversation
During back-t0-school time, we can’t think of anything better for conversation than our 100 Alternatives to “How Was Your Day?” Skip the one-word answers with a big list of better questions!
100 Alternatives to “How Was Your Day?”