The Nest

Blog

5 Activities to Do with Your Kids this Summer

Schools out for summer (cue Alice Cooper) which can bring a love/hate experience for parents. On one hand, you're excited to be done with another year of scholastic hustle & bustle and dress up days but on the other hand, now you have to figure out filling in the...

Burnout: Identifying, Treating, and Preventing

Burnout Definition: "A state of physical, emotional, and mental exhaustion caused by long term involvement in emotionally demanding situations." – Ayala Pines and Elliot Aronson Work, family, school, and social life. These are just a few factors that can contribute to...

When Sports Begin to Die Out for Girls

I first picked up a softball when I was seven years old and never put it down. I fell in love with sports. In middle school it kept me busy. In high school it kept me out of trouble. I continued my passion to play into adulthood and try to stay active today. Softball,...

Rainy Days

As Echo and I watch the rain play a game of tippety tap with the outside world, I’m reminded of my love of the sound of rain. Being wet in it? No. Having to do anything IN it? Also no.  I remember as a child, in the house on Seville, anytime it rained I would grab an...

It’s quiet here.
I don’t think, as parents, we realize how much having the kids home for school has changed our routine until they are no longer at home for school.
Wednesday is my teach day. During every 10 minute break, lunch break, and once class is over, I go upstairs and check on class. “Any tech issues? How is/did class going/go?”… and so on.
But that didn’t happen today. At my first ten minute break, I walked to the stairs and stopped, realizing I didn’t need to walk up them. I proceeded back to my office, then just sat at my desk for the next two breaks and most of lunch. I’m usually chatting with the kids at lunch, but not today and not anymore since today was their first day back to in person. And now I sit here with my class done having to wait for them to get home to chat. Funny how that works.
Us parents can play the game of excitement for the day the kids go back because we’ll have our time back, or we don’t have to stress about their tech issues. But in reality, them going back dramatically changes OUR days as well and we need to identify that too. You know you probably teared up a little once the uncomfortable silence of the day sunk in. Don’t lie.
So now it’s time to retrain the muscle memory for new days of routines…for both Maddy & Deegan and myself. Just like we had to train our brains for a new normal…now there’s a new new normal to try and get back to. The old normal.
Because now, it’s quiet here.