By Stef & Jamie, Seed2Stone Team Members
There was a time when Back to School meant new sneakers.
It still does, apparently. Except now the sneakers are considerably more expensive, our children have opinions about exactly which ones they will wear, and somehow buying them is just one item on a list that seems to regenerate overnight.
We're working moms with kids starting middle school, which means we're currently living in that strange world of alarms, packed lunches, homework and Sunday night scaries.
The kids are getting older. Back to School is supposed to be getting easier.
We're waiting.
Middle School Is a Whole New Thing
Starting middle school feels different from the elementary years.
Our kids need us less, which is exactly what we've been raising them to do. They can manage more on their own, make plans with friends and increasingly have lives we aren't completely in charge of.
This is good.
It is also slightly terrifying.
Because independence arrives before judgment does. We're supposed to loosen our grip while still somehow making sure everyone gets where they're going, remembers what they're supposed to bring, does their homework, eats something other than snacks and gets enough sleep to function the following morning.
We're not packing crayons anymore. We're managing humans who would often prefer that we stop managing them.
Then There Are the Sunday Night Scaries
Those never really went away, did they?
For the kids, Sunday night can mean homework remembered too late, wondering who they'll sit with tomorrow, whether there's a test they forgot about or what the week is going to bring.
For us, it's a mental scroll through lunches, schedules, activities, appointments, work and all the places everybody needs to be.
Summer Sundays don't feel like this.
September Sundays definitely do.
The Great September Reset
Still, we both love this time of year.
There's something about September that feels more like a new year than January. The weather starts changing. The first leaves turn. Sweaters come back. The kitchen shifts from peaches, tomatoes and corn toward apples, squash and food you actually want simmering on the stove.
Routine returns too. And despite complaining about it, there's something reassuring about knowing roughly what tomorrow is supposed to look like.
The problem is that September also starts the fastest slide on the calendar.
School begins and suddenly it's Halloween followed frantically by Thanksgiving. Then someone mentions holiday shopping and you become irrationally annoyed because surely it was Labor Day about 11 minutes ago.
Every year, September feels like a beginning and a countdown at exactly the same time.
The Kids Aren't the Only Ones Who Get a Reset
This may be our favourite part of Back to School.
After a summer organized around everyone else's schedules, September gives us a little nudge to think about ourselves again.
Maybe it's getting back to an exercise routine. Maybe it's finally making the appointment we've been putting off, cleaning out the closet or buying the new sneakers before our kids take the last available pair.
And sometimes it's much smaller than that.
A new sweater. Changing your hair. Putting on jewelry you haven't worn all summer. Adding another piercing to your ear stack or switching the pieces around.
Not a reinvention. Just something that makes you feel a little more like yourself again.
What We're Wearing Back to School
One thing we definitely don't need in September is another thing to remember.
That's part of why the Seed2Stone philosophy makes so much sense to both of us as moms. We put our jewelry on and leave it on. We can sleep in it, shower in it, work out in it and head straight into a meeting without thinking about changing anything.
There's enough taking things on and off in a house with kids.
Our earrings don't need to be one of them.
We're All Going Back to Something
Our kids are going back to classrooms this September. We're going back to routines.
Other women are sending a child to kindergarten, university or somewhere in between. Some are starting new jobs. Some finally have the house to themselves again. And plenty don't have kids in school at all but still feel September's strange pull toward a fresh start.
Maybe that's why Back to School stays with us long after we're the ones going to school.
There's anticipation in it. A little anxiety. A lot of logistics. And the feeling that something new is beginning.
Now we just have to survive the lunches.
Looking for a refresh?
