Episode 582: Back to School Tips from My Family to Yours!

The Whinypaluza Podcast

In this Whinypaluza Wednesday episode, Rebecca Greene shares back-to-school tips from her family as their children begin new academic chapte

Key takeaways

• Pacing oneself and trusting that everything will get done reduces anxiety during back-to-school transitions.
• Open communication is vital—encouraging kids to share their feelings helps prevent emotional buildup.

Main topics

• Back-to-school transitions
• Family-based advice from multiple generations

Notable quotes

"Remind yourself that it will all get done." – Lily Greene

"Work comes before everything else." – Max Greene

Conclusion

The episode concludes with a heartfelt reminder that every family's jo

Transcript preview

Speaker 2 (0:00) Hello everyone. Happy Speaker 3 (0:02) Whitey Balooza Wednesday. So Speaker 2 (0:03) you didn't sleep at all last night? I don't think Speaker 3 (0:05) so. Maybe an hour. Speaker 2 (0:06) So wait, so you heard me get up at 530? I Speaker 3 (0:09) heard you get up. I did indeed. I Speaker 2 (0:11) didn't know that. I thought you were asleep. I was not. You're a good faker. Speaker 3 (0:14) I am. Speaker 2 (0:15) Oh, Max is back at his... Max has been at research like all night. I need to text this boy. I think he's still doing research. How many hours can he do research? He Speaker 3 (0:27) loves his labs. Speaker 2 (0:30) I think we found Max's calling, people. Yeah. So, school started. Speaker 3 (0:36) Yes, for us. You may have already been back to school. Speaker 2 (0:39) Max went back to school two weeks ago. We dropped him off. Speaker 3 (0:43) Yeah. Speaker 2 (0:44) And Ella and Lily started Tuesday. So, Max is a sophomore in college. Ella is a senior in high school. Our baby started high school. Speaker 3 (0:55) She's a freshman. You Speaker 2 (0:56) haven't told me any feelings about that whatsoever. Speaker 3 (1:01) I'm ignorantly unaware that there wasn't any room for my feelings because there were so many other feelings happening in this house all at the same time. Speaker 2 (1:09) Do you think that... I Speaker 3 (1:10) was holding on to mine. Do Speaker 2 (1:11) us women not make room for your feelings? Speaker 3 (1:14) Of course you do all the time, honey. Speaker 2 (1:16) I'm sensing a problem. Speaker 2 (1:18) You Speaker 3 (1:19) can talk about that next week. Speaker 2 (1:20) Okay, another topic. Speaker 3 (1:22) So Speaker 2 (1:23) the topic this week is back to school because we just went back to school. Speaker 1 (1:28) Yes. Speaker 2 (1:28) And Ella had senior sunrise on Tuesday, so she wanted to leave for school around 6 or 6.15. So we were up at 5.30. Well, they were up at 5.30 being loud and woke me up. And today my... Get Speaker 3 (1:46) through, do not disturb. Speaker 2 (1:47) Did it work? I think we're still live. Speaker 3 (1:50) All right, we'll find out. Speaker 2 (1:53) He's going to find out. I think we're still live. Max is calling. Speaker 3 (1:56) All right, we're going to find out. Can you Speaker 2 (1:57) call him? Speaker 3 (1:58) I texted him and said we're live. Speaker 2 (2:02) Okay, hopefully he's okay. I will call him back. Speaker 3 (2:04) Yes. Speaker 2 (2:05) Sorry, Max. I will do my topic and then I will call Max back. But anyways, my body decided to get up at 530. So let's hope that I can make it until six tomorrow. Can I make it till six? I need to not get up at 530 every day. But anyways, let's go to our tips. I talked to my whole family. And I asked everyone for tips. I had Max home for the long weekend. So I did ask him for his tips. And I asked my girls and I asked Seth. So let's jump in and find out what everyone said. And we would love to hear from you. So tell us your back to school tips and what works for you. And tell us if anything resonates with you. We'd love hearing from you. So let's start with Lily. Start with the youngest. Yep, Speaker 3 (2:55) work our way up. Speaker 2 (2:55) And she had some good advice. She wants to remind us to pace ourselves. I'm very proud of her advice. She's listening. Even when Speaker 3 (3:06) you don't think she is. She's Speaker 2 (3:07) always listening. The next one really tells me she's listening because she says, remind yourself that it will all get done. And I say that all the time. You do. So I feel like she has internalized that from me. Speaker 3 (3:19) She's heard it. Did Speaker 2 (3:20) he text you back? Speaker 3 (3:22) Not yet. Speaker 2 (3:24) Oh boy. Okay. So anyways, she says to remind yourself that it all gets done. I tell myself this all the time and it calms me. So when I feel frantic, like I have too much going on and that I can't do it, I always tell myself, you can do it. You know, you always get everything done. So what else did she say? She said, talk to people and don't just keep things inside. And I'm so happy to hear her say that. And I hope she believes that because we all feel better when we talk to people. So as she's starting school, high school, there is a lot of stuff to tell me. So I am happy to have her unload everything from her day after high school. And I will be here to hear it all. So don't keep it inside. Tell someone. So let's move to I went to Mac's next Did Speaker 3 (4:20) I Speaker 2 (4:22) forget well the problem with Ella I don't see Ella's on here I might have forgotten Ella's because Ella did Teenage Speaker 3 (4:30) Tuesday Speaker 2 (4:30) so if we go through My stuff and we don't hear from Ella it is because Ella wrote her own blog It's Teenage Tuesday at WindingFlues.com. And she said that you don't need to know. That was her main theme. I thought that was very insightful. And I really loved, I love her blogs every week. So you can read hers every Tuesday, mine every Wednesday. WindingFlues Speaker 3 (4:58) .com. Speaker 2 (4:59) So I don't know that I wrote down Ella's, but let's talk about Max. Speaker 3 (5:03) Yep. Speaker 2 (5:04) Max, this is so Max. Work comes before everything else. This is the child on a typical Saturday night that has his mother saying, can you put the book down and go out please? And Speaker 1 (5:22) I Speaker 2 (5:22) have had Max and Ella both tell me many Saturday nights that they had too much homework and they weren't going out. So hopefully we will see him going out. Speaker 3 (5:33) Yes, although I did as a father, you know, helping foot the bill for his college education. His recent comment when you talked to him about this and he said, Mom, I'm here to study. I do want him to go out and have some fun once in a while, but he is right. He does a little too much, but he's right. Speaker 2 (5:51) If you know me. What is life about to me? Speaker 3 (5:56) Relationships. Speaker 2 (5:57) Connection. I'm all about connection, people. He's Speaker 3 (6:00) doing so much studying to connect to other smarter people. People Speaker 2 (6:04) need connection. We thrive on connection. So I encourage my kids, probably a little too much, to connect. And Ella will be like, my social battery is out from school. Like, I need to decompress. Speaker 2 (6:21) Kids these days. Anyways, we don't have to worry about Lily's connection. No. Okay, so what else does he say? So he says work comes before everything else, and he says he is at college to study. We do hope to see him go out. He had a very well-balanced summer of work and play. Yes. So I hope his school year has a little bit of play in there. Although I think to Max, working at the lab is play. Speaker 3 (6:48) He loves it. It's fun for him. That's not work. Speaker 2 (6:53) Okay, we're going to laugh at this. For all the college kids who might, if they're not listening, their parents can tell them, Max's advice is to do laundry when nobody else is doing laundry. And I think one of Max's favorite nights to do laundry is Friday because he says nobody's doing laundry on a Friday night. So that's his laundry tip. He also talked about routine. And for Max to say this makes a lot of sense because this kid thrives on routine. Lily is the same way. They need their water. They need their sleep. They need their meals. And they need their workouts. And the two of them are very similar. Speaker