Are you on Team Boohoo or Team Yahoo on the first day of school?
My kids’ elementary school hosts a Yahoo or Boohoo Parent Coffee every year on the first day of school. The idea is that whether you are celebrating or lamenting the first day of school, you can enjoy a free cup of coffee and commiserate with other parents before you head off to continue your day.
I am 100% Team Yahoo!
I am happy and excited to go back-to-school shopping (although I am way happier and more excited when this involves online shopping and not an ACTUAL trip to a store. Thanks, Target Drive Up!).
**I am notorious for scouring the school website in June to find the updated supply lists and load up my virtual Target cart weeks earlier than necessary**
I willingly empty out and spruce up the backpacks and lunchboxes until they are almost as good as new.
I gladly buy new tennis shoes and pick out “first day of school” outfits.
I merrily stock the refrigerator and pantry with every conceivable lunch option that my kids will say they’ll eat but will undoubtedly throw away in the cafeteria trash can.
I joyfully download and print out the “First Day of X Grade” template for the obligatory photos on the front steps.
I meticulously lay out everyone’s outfits the night before.
If I remember, we read a back-to-school-themed book at bedtime.
If I’m feeling a little extra, I leave an encouraging note inside their lunch boxes (I’m not typically a “leave a note in your lunch box” mom, but I reserve the right to throw in a few particularly well-placed ones throughout the year).
I *try* to have them all tucked in by the Official School Year Bed Time, but the last minute-ness of preparing for the first day of school often leads to a severe slide into the Unofficial Summer Bed Time … oops.
I ungrudgingly set my own alarm earlier than usual to help avoid yelling and rushing around the next morning (but who’s kidding, there will be the inevitable yelling and rushing because, kids).
I gleefully make a first day of school breakfast that will not resemble any other school day breakfast in its originality, complexity, or preparation. (It’s all downhill from there!).
I take approximately 1000 pictures that morning of my kids on our front steps first without the sign, then with the sign, full-body shots, then close-ups, separately, and then together, with and without their backpacks on … that’s all before we get to the actual school where we start all over now that we’re “on location.”
I give all the hugs, high fives, and positive affirmations as they disappear into the crowd and hallways.
I pump my fist, high-five the other Yahoo parents, and chuckle at the Boohoo parents attempting to sneak into the front doors to accompany their kids to their classrooms.
For the record, there was one year that I was 100% Team Boohoo — 2020: The infamous year when the first day of school involved walking into the dining room to oversee virtual school while drinking my coffee solo. But, you’d better believe that I celebrated the real first day of school a few months later when my kids returned to the classroom!
