The 5 things saving me this back-to-school

The Shortlist vol. 14

Raise your hand if you’ve ever been personally victimized by back-to-school season.

You guys… this may be my worst adjustment yet. And yes, it’s a very-much self-inflicted wound.

Here’s the math: we came home from 6 weeks of a slow Spanish summer to a brand new house in complete disarray, boxes everywhere. The MNTSTUDIO flagship opens at the end of this month, with two more starting construction this fall. My kids are in two different camps on opposite sides of the city this week. No au pair (our next one arrives mid-September). A temporary nanny starts Friday, which means onboarding her from scratch.

So when I tell you back-to-school prep has zero square footage left in my brain, I mean it.

Thankfully, I dialed in my seasonal strategies last year, so this transition is at least *a little* easier. Not flawless by any means: my daughter is starting at a brand new school we can’t walk to, so driving is going back into our morning routine for a year until both kids are at the same school. Logistics of the morning are still yet to be determined…

Here are the exact tools I’m using to make it work. I wanted to hand them straight to you.

1. Create a social story: A simple, personalized walkthrough of what their first day and first weeks will look like, start to finish. Find my ChatGPT prompt here. Yes you can absolutely do this in Claude, but I don’t have mental bandwidth to test a new platform for this already proven prompt.

2. Start living your ideal morning routine now. Wake-up times, split shifts with your partner so you each get a workout and time to actually get ready. Practice it before the pressure hits, not during.

3. Get your kids bought in. Let them pick the backpack, the lunchbox, or a small first-day ritual so they feel excited instead of anxious. And those cute first-day photos with the signs? Do them, but the weekend before, not the actual morning. Trust me, the last thing you need at 7am is another to-do.

4. Build a nightly checklist. Get it out of your head and onto paper so nothing falls through the cracks. Print it, tape it up in the kitchen, and assign who’s doing what (or drop it on your Hearth calendar).

5. Put every school date on a dedicated School calendar in Google today. Breaks, early releases, all of it. Find my ChatGPT prompt here or if you pay for Claude, run the same prompt and have it add everything to your calendar automatically.

Want to hear how I actually use these in real life? I did a whole episode on back-to-school prep last year.

And here's everything I'm actually buying for the kids AND for me.

For the Kids

1. Fjällräven Kanken Mini Backpack the perfect size, and it comes in every color

2. Freezable Lunch Box you freeze the whole box, no ice pack to lose

3. Bento Lunch Box for toddlers and preschoolers or this one for elementary kids

4. Waterproof Labels you can never have too many

5. Owala Kids Water Bottle the whole family uses these

6. Hearth Calendar how we all stay organized. Use code NMMApril for 15% off

7. Mondo Llama Crafts if you’ve followed me for a while you know I love these from Target. The perfect after-school activity.

For you:

I like to feel put together but comfortable on the way to drop-off. My staples:

8. Leset Yoko Pocket Pants obsessed for years now

9. The Effortless Pant recently grabbed these and can’t stop wearing them

10. Cuyana Tote if I’m headed straight to the studio, or the Clare V. Grande Fanny Pack if I’m going back home after drop-off

11. Sezane Button Up Shirt the easiest way to look put together

12. Rails Evangeline Sweater for cooler mornings

13. Cotton Relaxed T-Shirt I cannot believe this is Gap, it feels like a $100 tee

14. Buck Mason T-Shirt the perfect white tee, full stop

15. Flip Flops my go-to when we’re running out the door

The exact carry-on kit that survived 22 hours of travel with a 4 & 6-year-old

Everything I’m packing for San Sebastián

"How do you just... move to Spain for the summer?”

💬 What’s your favorite back to school hack??

📤 Send this to a mom dreading back to school

Thanks for joining me on this journey,

Barbara

P.S: I've spent months researching European summer camps, and all of that research lives in the paid subscriber archive, along with my deeper thoughts on tools, systems & mindset for working moms. I'm also sharing all my San Sebastián recs, plus the real story of living abroad with my family for 6 weeks.