While it’s true that celebrities’ lives don’t always look like the rest of ours, parenting is an equalizer. It doesn’t matter who you are or where you’re from — when it comes time to send our kiddos back to school, we all feel the same thing: overwhelmed.
Sure, these last few months of summer have been dragging and you’ve joked once or twice about throwing a parents-only rosé-all-day party in celebration of school’s return. But, naturally, it’s bittersweet. Back to school means saying goodbye to all of those fun summer adventures you’ve enjoyed soaking up for the last few months.
Celebrity moms get it. And, like the rest of us, they also understand how easy it is to get frazzled over the whole back-to-school shuffle. Between shopping for clothes, restocking school necessities (aka trying to nail that supply list in one outing) and juggling different schedules, anyone could go mad in the process.
Sometimes, it just helps to get an outside perspective. Here are 10 back-to-school hacks from some of your favorite Hollywood parents.
Get a Head Start
As a mother of three, Jessica Alba has learned along the way not to leave everything to the last minute. "We are indeed list-makers, and we are back-to-school shoppers," she told SheKnows exclusively. "We always take a picture in the morning on the first day of school. We pick out the kids' outfits; I actually always pick out my clothes the night before, so that’s one less thing we have to worry about, down to the hair accessory, the shoes, socks, the full nine. We always have the backpacks ready to go at the door, and for me, I always have my work bag ready to go as well."
Basically, it's a "set it and forget it" approach. "When you set it all out the night before, you don't have to argue or freak out or change 50 times. It's just — you're wearing this; I'm wearing this. The end," she explained.
Do Your Homework
When it comes to getting Benjamin and Megan's school year off on the right foot, Alison Sweeney is a firm believer in being proactive. Her kids might not have homework those first few days of school (or weeks preceding), but Sweeney gives herself some.
"School is starting again, and that means meeting lots of new people, for your kids and you. I love attending back-to-school nights and open houses and other evening events at Ben’s school and Megan’s because it’s a chance to learn more about their teachers and interact with their classmates’ parents," she wrote on her (now defunct) blog, via Parents Canada.
Divide & Conquer
Rachel Zoe's sons Skyler and Kai may be super-cute, but that doesn't mean they aren't a handful on back to school mornings. Her key to keeping calm during the chaos? Divide and conquer.
"I always say it's like a Saturday Night Live skit every day. You get up and the clock starts ticking and you have to get sunblock on them, get them dressed, comb their hair and make them look like human beings, feed them, pack two lunches and then get them in the car," she joked to Us Weekly in July 2018. "My husband, Roger [Berman], takes them to school and then I run out and continue the race and go to work, but I live for every second of it, so you kind of have to laugh your way through it."
Choose Comfortable Over Cutesy
It's easy to imagine that a sought-after celebrity designer wouldn't dare send her children to school looking anything but impeccably dressed. However, Rebecca Minkoff says that sending Luca and Bowie back to school is much easier when she prioritizes comfort for her son and daughter.
"Part of me, as a designer, thinks, ‘Why don’t I dress them perfectly?’ But I just want them to be kids. I won’t have a good Instagram photo, but they’ll be comfortable," she told Parents magazine.
Address Any Anxiety Up Front
Punky Brewster grew up, you guys! Today, Soleil Moon Frye has four kids, and she's become adept at picking up on important cues as Poet, Jagger, Lyric and Story head back to school.
"Back to school is an exciting time. There’s lots of shopping to be done: New clothes, new shoes, new crayons and new backpacks are all in order. As the beginning of school approaches, kids start to look forward to friends they might have missed over the summer. Yes, back to school is an exciting time," she wrote on her former blog. "But it can also be very stressful, and it is completely normal for kids to experience some back to school anxiety. Getting a new teacher means adapting to a new teaching style and starting from scratch. For a child who struggles with transitions, this is a recipe for stress."
To make the transition less stressful, Frye suggest speaking with your kids before the school year takes off — and keeping an open dialogue.
Designate a Space for School Stuff
Is it our imagination, or do kids have even more school baggage when they're younger? To stay on top of the mountain of stuff her daughter Harper and son Holt will inevitably bring home, Tiffani Thiessen created a designated organization station.
"It’s outfitted with tons of bins filled with all types of paper and supplies. And everything is labeled, of course. Whether handwriting a note or hunkering down with a school worksheet, it’s a favorite spot of Harper’s," Thiessen told Us Weekly.
Another go-to tip Thiessen shared is to embrace your inner organizational nerd. "To-do lists are my thing,” she said. “I’m very Type A, so I can’t get enough of them. And labels,” she added. “There’s always lots of labeling going on this time of year.”
Take Inventory
Jennie Garth is the mother of three daughters (including a teen and preteen in school), so you know she's had to figure out a solid system for the back-to-school clothes situation. In an interview with RetailMeNot, Garth swears by taking inventory.
"Before we go shopping for new outfits, we put on some music, and with my help and encouragement, the girls go through their closets to see what still fits and decide what they want their style to be for the next school year," she explained.
"They love this concept, because it gives them a sense of independence and identity. Then they make three piles: keep, donate and hand-me-down. One of the major pluses of having three girls is the hand-me-downs! They grow so fast that often Lola 'shops' in her older sister, Luca’s, closet and Fiona can 'shop' in Lola’s. For super-cute clothes that Luca can see her sisters rocking, we store piles in clear plastic boxes labeled with the size. The little girls love sifting through the boxes to find 'new' clothes and feel a special bond with their big sis when they wear her cool stuff."
Pencil Everything In
Any super-mama of four kids is the kind of mama you want in your corner, right? Brooke Burke handles motherhood with such grace, and — as "crazy" as she admits it is in her household — heading back to school proves no different. The only way to survive, she said, is to pull out your planners.
"First of all, book your pediatric appointments, those yearly appointments at the beginning of summer, not at the end of the summer, because you're never going to get in, and then you're going to be scrambling to turn your paperwork in," she told KidsInTheHouse.
Bonus? Burke has another planning hack up her sleeve that streamlines life for the entire family. "The other thing that I do every year, and I do this all year long, is I have a family calendar. And it's a large calendar, and I only use pencil. Pencil is very important for the success of this. But everybody's schedule is written on this calendar, and the family, the children can refer to it." Burke updates this calendar every Sunday, like clockwork, she said.
Embrace Bargain Shopping
We're all guilty of wanting to dress our kids in super-cute get-ups when they first go back to school — and you definitely can. There's nothing wrong with Insta-worthy back-to-school snapshots. But, if you ask Bethenny Frankel, you should always look for a deal on those trendy duds. Her logic makes a ton of sense.
"I’m a bargain shopper. I find the best bargains for myself, so why wouldn’t I do the same for Bryn? It’s crazy to spend a lot of money on outfits that are going to get spilled on and grown out of in a matter of minutes," she said (via the Daily Dish).
Use Logic to Get Your Kids to Open Up
When SheKnows recently caught up with Kristen Bell, we couldn't resist asking one of the coolest (and most authentic) Hollywood moms out there if she had any back-to-school hacks. Since her daughters, Lincoln and Delta, are still young and just starting their school careers, she confessed she hadn't nailed down any clever tips yet. However, the Good Place star did let us in on a parenting tactic we can all take a cue from as our kids head back to school.
"[When] you ask your kids how their day was, they never want to answer because it’s a very annoying question for a kid," Bell told SheKnows. "So my husband, who really sort of invented this way of parenting we follow in our household, will say, 'Hey, do you know why Mommy and I ask you about your day?' Which immediately gets their attention, because it’s a more interesting, stimulating question. And he says, 'It’s because we’ve been apart from you for 10 hours, and we really want to connect with you. I know it’s an annoying question to answer, but when we ask you about your day, what we’re trying to do is feel close to you again because we miss you. That’s why I ask Mommy about her day too, and why Mommy asks me about my day. It’s an attempt to reconnect as a family because we love each other.'"
Bell said this simple approach has changed the way the family interacts at the end of the day. "I will be damned if the next day they didn’t start answering the question… my 5-year-old and 3-year-old ask me how my day was because of that — because they know there’s more meaning behind it."
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