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Beat Back-to-School Burnout: The ADHD Mom's Prep Plan for a Calmer School Year · Raising ADHD: Real Talk For Parents & Educators

• 0:00
  Apryl: Right now it's late July and it feels like we're living in this weird in-between.
• 0:05
  Apryl: We're still in summer, bedtimes are later, mornings are slower, the kids are in swimsuits more than clothes, but school is already creeping into your brain.
• 0:15
  Apryl: Supply lists, new teachers, bus routes, meds, bedtime, the morning rush.
• 0:22
  Apryl: And here's the thing you already know in your bones.
• 0:25
  Apryl: If you are stressed, everyone else is stressed.
• 0:29
  Apryl: And you may already be feeling that stress.
• 0:32
  Apryl: You walk into Walmart, you see the back to school bins, you're starting to get emails from the school.
• 0:38
  Apryl: That stress is real.
• 0:40
  Apryl: So before we do anything for the kids or the teachers, I want this first back to school episode to be about you, the mom, the dad, grandma, grandpa, the caregiver, and what you can start doing this week to take real weight off of your shoulders before the school year starts.
• 1:01
  Apryl: Welcome to Raising ADHD, the podcast for parents and teachers raising ADHD kids.
• 1:07
  Apryl: If you've ever felt frustrated, overwhelmed, or just unsure what to do next, you're not alone.
• 1:13
  Apryl: I'm April Bradford, a former teacher and ADHD mom, and alongside my husband, Dr.
• 1:19
  Apryl: Brian Bradford, a child and adolescent psychiatrist, we're here to give you the clarity, strategies, and support you've been looking for.
• 1:26
  Apryl: Every week we break down the misconceptions, answer your biggest questions, and share real tools you can use right away at home and in the classroom.
• 1:36
  Apryl: So if you're ready to feel more confident and less overwhelmed, you're in the right place.
• 1:40
  Apryl: Hey there, welcome back to Raising ADHD.
• 1:43
  Apryl: I'm April, former classroom teacher, ADHD parenting coach, and a mom raising my own neurodivergent kid right alongside you.
• 1:52
  Apryl: On this show, we translate research and real life into something you can actually do at 7 a.m.
• 1:57
  Apryl: on a school day.
• 1:59
  Apryl: We are kicking off a three-part back to school series.
• 2:04
  Apryl: So here's what we're going to cover in the next three episodes.
• 2:07
  Apryl: Number one is today's episode.
• 2:09
  Apryl: This is getting mom ready or the caretaker ready, taking the weight off of your brain so you are refreshed and ready to go for this new school year.
• 2:21
  Apryl: The second episode in the series will be getting your ADHD kid ready.
• 2:26
  Apryl: So routines, regulation, and expectations.
• 2:30
  Apryl: And the final episode in the series will be preparing the teacher how to start the year on the right foot with school.
• 2:39
  Apryl: So, like I said, today is all about you, the places school year stress hits you hardest, and the simple decisions you can make now so you're not carrying everything by yourself two weeks from now when school starts.
• 2:55
  Apryl: Here's the raising ADHD principle that runs underneath this whole episode.
• 3:01
  Apryl: Support what your child's brain needs and your brain needs, and let go of what it doesn't.
• 3:09
  Apryl: Back to school is very good at loading moms up with things that don't actually matter.
• 3:16
  Apryl: I'm already starting to get all of the emails, the school supply lists, all of the things, the fall activities.
• 3:25
  Apryl: There's so much going on right now.
• 3:27
  Apryl: School clothes shopping.
• 3:28
  Apryl: I mean, the media is just hitting us everywhere in society and how to correctly prepare and all of the things.
• 3:37
  Apryl: Things that don't actually matter.
• 3:39
  Apryl: You are your child's external executive function.
• 3:42
  Apryl: You're there outside frontal lobe, and that's a huge job.
• 3:46
  Apryl: That adds a layer of stress that parents of neurotypical kids don't carry.
• 3:53
  Apryl: The more that we can take off your plate right now, the calmer and more regulated you'll be when school starts.
• 4:01
  Apryl: That's the whole goal of what we're covering in today's episode.
• 4:05
  Apryl: So I want to start where the stress actually lives, and that's your battle zones.
• 4:12
  Apryl: And for back to school, there's usually two really big ones, and that's morning routine and evening routine.
• 4:20
  Apryl: So as you listen today, I want you to think back to last year and ask yourself which one was our worst battle zone, mornings or evenings?
• 4:29
  Apryl: Did the day start with meltdowns, lost shoes, forgotten meds, cereal on the floor, and you yelling more than you'd like?
• 4:35
  Apryl: Or did you hit your wall at night with bedtime creeping later and later, screens, fights over baths and books, everybody exhausting and nobody settling?
• 4:46
  Apryl: This is the goal for this episode.
• 4:48
  Apryl: You do not need to fix everything.
• 4:50
  Apryl: You just need to know which zone is the one that joins you the most because that's the one that we're going to focus on.
• 4:56
  Apryl: And we're going to take baby steps and implement simple, easy things to take the weight off of these battle zones off of you so that you have a lighter load this school year.
• 5:09
  Apryl: So let's start with mornings.
• 5:11
  Apryl: If mornings were your war zone, this is where you're going to focus.
• 5:16
  Apryl: Your goal isn't to create a perfect morning.
• 5:19
  Apryl: Your goal is to take decisions and frictions off of your brain ahead of time.
• 5:26
  Apryl: Here are a few places you can start this week while it's still summer.
• 5:31
  Apryl: Number one, decide breakfast once.
• 5:34
  Apryl: Instead of your kid coming to the kitchen and you saying, What do you want for breakfast?
• 5:40
  Apryl: Or here's five options, pick one, or you staring in the pantry in a panic, make one simple decision now.
• 5:49
  Apryl: These are our school morning breakfasts, and we rotate between them.
• 5:54
  Apryl: That's it.
• 5:55
  Apryl: So, for example, that could be cereal or toast with peanut butter, a protein shake, yogurt and granola.
• 6:01
  Apryl: You choose what you know your kid's gonna eat, you give them that option, and that's it.
• 6:08
  Apryl: And then it also makes grocery shopping easier too, because you're like, I know if I have these two or three breakfast things, that's it.
• 6:16
  Apryl: That's all I have to shop for.
• 6:18
  Apryl: And every single week, you just add those to your grocery list, and it's simple and easy, something you don't have to think about.
• 6:25
  Apryl: By doing this, you're not depriving anyone.
• 6:28
  Apryl: You are reducing decision load for a brain that already has to carry a lot.
• 6:33
  Apryl: It helps your child and it helps you.
• 6:36
  Apryl: If you have my morning toolkit, you'll see this laid out step by step.
• 6:40
  Apryl: The heart of the toolkit is, and everything that I stand for, is the fewer choices that we can make and we can make them ahead of time, the less stressful it's going to be in the moment.
• 6:53
  Apryl: If you don't have the toolkit, the morning toolkit yet, go to raisingadh.org slash morning, and you can grab that toolkit for free.
• 7:06
  Apryl: Okay, so we're gonna decide school day breakfast.
• 7:10
  Apryl: Another note on that, make it easy for you.
• 7:14
  Apryl: If you love to cook breakfast, great, do that.
• 7:18
  Apryl: You have time in the morning to cook breakfast, great, do that.
• 7:23
  Apryl: But for a lot of us, we're trying to get kids out the door, we're trying to get ourselves ready for work, taking care of the pets, making sure everything's ready to go so everyone can walk out that door for the rest of the day.
• 7:34
  Apryl: And cooking is not an option.
• 7:37
  Apryl: So do not feel like you have to cook some meal when really you don't enjoy it, you don't have time for it, and it's bringing you stress.
• 7:47
  Apryl: Don't do it.
• 7:48
  Apryl: There's great breakfast options that you can implement that are healthy, that have protein, because we know that helps our ADHD kiddos, and you can serve it very quickly.
• 8:03
  Apryl: So find those things for your home and do those.
• 8:06
  Apryl: Okay.
• 8:07
  Apryl: Number two is decide clothes once a week or the night before, whichever one works best for you.
• 8:15
  Apryl: These two, both of these methods have worked for us very well.
• 8:19
  Apryl: Getting dressed, as we know, can be a huge sticking point for ADHD kiddos.
• 8:24
  Apryl: They get sidetracked when they're going to get their clothes, they get lost, they get all the things we know.
• 8:30
  Apryl: They're just all over the place.
• 8:32
  Apryl: So doing this at night is super helpful.
• 8:35
  Apryl: So, two options for this.
• 8:36
  Apryl: You can start practicing now, even if you're still in summer or your kiddo is going to summer camp.
• 8:43
  Apryl: This can be really good prep if they're going to summer camp because you do have to get out the door on time.
• 8:48
  Apryl: But even if you're just in the lazy days of summer, start doing this now because then it's going to be a habit and routine once school gets into place.
• 8:59
  Apryl: So, number one is the launch pad method.
• 9:03
  Apryl: Each evening, evening key there, your child picks out tomorrow's clothes and puts them in a specific spot.
• 9:10
  Apryl: So you choose where that launch pad is and you can have a spot for each kid.
• 9:15
  Apryl: The kitchen counter, a bench.
• 9:17
  Apryl: It's their launch pad.
• 9:19
  Apryl: And then in the morning, they go just straight to that spot instead of hunting through their drawers to try to find something.
• 9:26
  Apryl: It also helps too, if maybe you struggle keeping up with laundry and it's like, oh my gosh, I can't find anything because they're in the hampers, right?
• 9:34
  Apryl: It's really helpful for that morning stress of like, where are the clothes?
• 9:38
  Apryl: So, launch pad method.
• 9:40
  Apryl: Each evening your child picks out their clothes and puts it in their launch pad.
• 9:44
  Apryl: Or another option to do this is a weekly option.
• 9:49
  Apryl: I have this is in the morning toolkit.
• 9:53
  Apryl: I use a weekly clothes organizer that I hang in my closet for my daughter.
• 9:58
  Apryl: Um, it hangs, you can use a hanging shelf or labeled bins, whatever works for you, but it's like each day of the week, there's a label.
• 10:06
  Apryl: And at the beginning of the week, you fill each slot with one outfit.
• 10:11
  Apryl: Or whenever you do laundry, laundry day, you just instead of putting the laundry away, you put it in the organizer, the clothes organizer.
• 10:20
  Apryl: You've removed five midweek arguments before they start.
• 10:25
  Apryl: You've removed it before the week has even started.
• 10:28
  Apryl: So even if it takes you longer right now to help them pick and place clothes at night, that time is available in the evenings.
• 10:36
  Apryl: So having them do this at night, if it takes them 15 minutes longer, that's okay because you're not trying to get out the door in 15 minutes and they're finding their clothes for that whole 15 minutes, right?
• 10:49
  Apryl: We have a little more leeway in the evenings.
• 10:52
  Apryl: One thing that I really, really like to do is an evening reset routine.
• 10:58
  Apryl: What the evening reset routine is, is going through the house and resetting the house.
• 11:03
  Apryl: That's what that's why it's called that.
• 11:04
  Apryl: It's like everything is put back in its place, everyone helps, and we just do a quick reset of the house.
• 11:11
  Apryl: But you could do this, same concept, but it's an evening prep routine.
• 11:18
  Apryl: So everyone in the house gets their clothes.
• 11:20
  Apryl: Even you, as mom, doing this, getting your clothes, knowing what outfit you're wearing tomorrow, it just makes the week and the day and the morning so much easier.
• 11:30
  Apryl: So have uh some sort of alarm that goes off at that time, you know, seven o'clock at night, enough time that it's not, if your kid doesn't do it right away, you know, they're sidetracked, their their ADHD, we know, but it gives them leeway that it's not eating into their bedtime routine.
• 11:52
  Apryl: One thing that I find can be actually helpful with this, we know from the book Atomic Habits, anytime you can link something new to a habit that you already have, um, that is super helpful.
• 12:06
  Apryl: So maybe it's we eat dinner, and after dinner, everyone goes to their rooms, grabs their clothes, everything they need for the day, for the next day, and puts it in their launch pad.
• 12:19
  Apryl: That can be something, and then we just know, oh, we've eaten dinner, everyone go get your stuff, get it set out.
• 12:26
  Apryl: And one thing you can do too, so we've attached that new habit onto something that we're already doing.
• 12:34
  Apryl: And then another thing you can do, if you're doing it before bedtime, you know, like a little while before bedtime, like I said, so it's not eating into that bedtime time, is if there's something that they enjoy doing at, like say you eat dinner at 6:30.
• 12:50
  Apryl: So by 6:45, everyone's done.
• 12:53
  Apryl: It's time to go do the evening prep routine.
• 12:57
  Apryl: But at seven o'clock, it's you know, family movie night, or it is replay, or it is bike riding, or whatever it is for your family, but something your kid enjoys, because then it gives them a motivation to get that task done as quickly as possible, instead of getting sidetracked and doing all the other things and it eating away at time because now it's taking away from their time of something they enjoy.
• 13:30
  Apryl: So they're gonna do it quicker.
• 13:31
  Apryl: It's a motivation to get it done because they want to do that next task.
• 13:35
  Apryl: This is again something that's really, really hard to do in the morning because time is limited in the morning, or in the evening, you do have more flexible time.
• 13:44
  Apryl: By doing this, you're trading that 15 minutes of a calm evening prep.
• 13:48
  Apryl: Even if it is a little bit more chaotic, it's way better than that 15 minutes of frantic morning chaos, everyone yelling, everyone crying, not getting ready, all of that.
• 13:58
  Apryl: It's gonna just help your mornings.
• 14:00
  Apryl: Next up, school lunch.
• 14:01
  Apryl: Let's talk school lunch.
• 14:02
  Apryl: This one is a sneaky little devil.
• 14:06
  Apryl: It is something that weighs on my mind more than it should.
• 14:10
  Apryl: So if you're like me, here's some things that have helped in our house.
• 14:14
  Apryl: So for us, my daughter does not eat school lunch.
• 14:18
  Apryl: She does not like it, she doesn't eat it.
• 14:21
  Apryl: I used to have her eat it, but essentially when I say eat it, I was just paying for her to throw things away.
• 14:27
  Apryl: And here in the great state of Tennessee, the kids can buy ice cream at lunch.
• 14:33
  Apryl: What in the world is that?
• 14:35
  Apryl: So instead of even eating her lunch, she would buy ice cream and eat ice cream for lunch.
• 14:40
  Apryl: So I was like, no, we're not doing that.
• 14:41
  Apryl: We'll just do home lunch.
• 14:43
  Apryl: So now we do home lunch, but maybe you do school lunch.
• 14:47
  Apryl: If you do school lunch, oh my gosh, I can just tell you I am so jealous of you that your child will eat school lunch.
• 14:54
  Apryl: Um, there is no right or wrong way though, I will say that.
• 14:58
  Apryl: I used to feel like, oh, not a good mom because my kid's eating school lunch, or my home lunches aren't like the perfectly prepared Pinterest with cute little cookie cutters.
• 15:09
  Apryl: No.
• 15:10
  Apryl: A Fed kid is better, right?
• 15:12
  Apryl: Fed is Fed is what we're going for here.
• 15:15
  Apryl: So we want to make it as simple as possible.
• 15:18
  Apryl: If your child sometimes does school lunch and sometimes does home lunch, and you're usually like deciding in that moment or in the mornings, your brain has to remember the school lunch menu.
• 15:32
  Apryl: You have to negotiate with your child, and you have to invent lunch on the fly if they suddenly change their mind and say, Never mind, I want home lunch.
• 15:40
  Apryl: So let's change that.
• 15:42
  Apryl: This week, decide which days are home lunch days and which days are school lunch days.
• 15:50
  Apryl: And for a lot of schools, I've I've lived in how many different states now, like five different states, worked in three different states in different school districts.
• 16:04
  Apryl: And from what I've seen across the all the states that I've lived in, worked in in school lunches are very predictable for the most part.
• 16:15
  Apryl: Usually there's a pizza day for my school growing up, it was Thursday.
• 16:22
  Apryl: So we could count on pizza day being Thursday.
• 16:26
  Apryl: Um, then there was like a day that they would always serve like meat of some sort.
• 16:32
  Apryl: So like it would be like turkey and then like roast beef the next week, and then I don't know, whatever.
• 16:38
  Apryl: But usually there's a predictable schedule.
• 16:41
  Apryl: Usually there's like a chicken nugget day.
• 16:43
  Apryl: So looking at that schedule and just knowing, okay, Thursday's pizza day, you eat pizza, great.
• 16:49
  Apryl: You're having school lunch.
• 16:51
  Apryl: We just know that every Thursday is a school lunch day.
• 16:54
  Apryl: Tuesday's chicken nugget day at school, so you'll eat chicken nuggets, great.
• 16:59
  Apryl: Tuesdays and Thursdays, those are school lunch.
• 17:01
  Apryl: Monday, Wednesday, Friday are home lunch days.
• 17:04
  Apryl: So just having that decided, which days are home lunch days, which days are school lunch days, and having that decision done.
• 17:12
  Apryl: Again, these little teeny decisions actually weigh on your mind more than you realize.
• 17:19
  Apryl: And just having that decision already done takes that weight off of your brain.
• 17:24
  Apryl: So decide, number one, if your kid eats, always eats home lunch or always eats school lunch, great.
• 17:31
  Apryl: We know that.
• 17:32
  Apryl: If they're always school lunch, the nice thing is you don't have to, I mean, essentially you don't have to do anything because they they just choose once they get to school, which is so, so nice.
• 17:43
  Apryl: Like I said, very jealous.
• 17:44
  Apryl: If you're a home lunch, always, then decide on just like we did with breakfast, decide three different meals that you can rotate, then you always have those supplies at home and they can choose.
• 17:57
  Apryl: Okay, these are your three options.
• 17:59
  Apryl: This is what we're having.
• 18:00
  Apryl: It's also if you can prepare it the night before, the same time that you're cleaning up dinner, you're making lunches, then all of that cleanup is already done and you don't have double cleanup.
• 18:12
  Apryl: Again, super easy.
• 18:13
  Apryl: But decide your days that they're eating school lunch, eating home lunch, write it down, put it on the fridge.
• 18:19
  Apryl: If they're home lunchers, decide those few options that they can choose from, put that on the list as well.
• 18:27
  Apryl: So those decisions are already made.
• 18:30
  Apryl: So now instead of arguing every morning, you simply have a plan you already made.
• 18:35
  Apryl: You just follow the plan.
• 18:38
  Apryl: Back to school is not just about routines, but it's also about those logistics that quietly drain you and take away a lot of time that you could use to do something, maybe hopefully for yourself.
• 18:55
  Apryl: Um, but two places you can give your future self a gift.
• 18:59
  Apryl: Number one, this is I started doing this.
• 19:04
  Apryl: I was like one of the very first customers in Arizona to start using Walmart's grocery pickup.
• 19:13
  Apryl: This was before they offered delivery, it was just pickup.
• 19:17
  Apryl: I don't know if we were like one of the first in the nation to have this, but I was definitely one of the first in the state of Arizona to start doing this.
• 19:26
  Apryl: But picking up groceries.
• 19:29
  Apryl: And then I transferred, once they started doing delivery, I transferred to delivery instead of pickup.
• 19:37
  Apryl: For me, the to get to Walmart, it is at least 20 minutes there, which then it's at least 20 minutes back, and that's if I do pickup, then I'm at least 40 minutes.
• 19:49
  Apryl: If I don't do pickup and I actually grocery shop, I can honestly say I have not grocery shopped like my full grocery order in oh my goodness, probably 15 years.
• 20:05
  Apryl: So this is a huge time saver for me.
• 20:09
  Apryl: And it like I absolutely love it.
• 20:13
  Apryl: I do have a little grocery store.
• 20:15
  Apryl: I have a Kroger right here in my neighborhood.
• 20:17
  Apryl: But if I need something quick or my produce or whatever, I just run in and grab that.
• 20:21
  Apryl: But my whole full grocery order, that is always delivered to me.
• 20:26
  Apryl: So look around at where you're located.
• 20:29
  Apryl: If Walmart, Kroger, or another local store offers delivery or easy pickup, I would highly consider that.
• 20:37
  Apryl: Consider a Walmart Plus or similar membership if it fits your budget.
• 20:42
  Apryl: Walmart Plus, you get free grocery delivery.
• 20:47
  Apryl: Um, I think it's about$100 a year.
• 20:51
  Apryl: But considering I am delivering groceries every single week, that is a huge, that's hours and hours of my time saved.
• 20:59
  Apryl: It is well worth it for me.
• 21:02
  Apryl: Scheduling a weekly delivery on the same day.
• 21:06
  Apryl: This is one less thing your brain has to remember.
• 21:08
  Apryl: And again, if we have those breakfasts decided and those lunches decided already, we already know you can save things in your virtual shopping cart or your favorites.
• 21:21
  Apryl: So you just go through and click, click, click, click, click, add those, done.
• 21:25
  Apryl: Right?
• 21:26
  Apryl: So your brain does not have to think about all of this.
• 21:30
  Apryl: You are not failing if you outsource the drive and the cart pushing.
• 21:35
  Apryl: You are protecting your nervous system.
• 21:37
  Apryl: I can't imagine having to go back to my own grocery shopping.
• 21:42
  Apryl: Like that gives me anxiety to think about.
• 21:45
  Apryl: So if you haven't tried it, try it.
• 21:48
  Apryl: On the note of delivery, Costco also delivers.
• 21:53
  Apryl: Um, I can't remember if they charge a fee or if it's if you spend so much, it's free.
• 21:58
  Apryl: But that One.
• 22:00
  Apryl: I hate going to Costco.
• 22:02
  Apryl: But like all the lunchbox stuff, the I get my meat from Costco, all of that can be delivered as well.
• 22:08
  Apryl: So check that out.
• 22:10
  Apryl: Number two is subscriptions for repeat items.
• 22:14
  Apryl: So think about all the things you use every single week once school starts.
• 22:18
  Apryl: Lunch supplies, like the Ziploc bags, the napkins, the plastic spoons, and the snacks tables, the juice boxes, whatever it is that you use in your lunch, those things that you're using on repeat.
• 22:29
  Apryl: Household items, so toilet paper, paper towels, Clorox wipes, kitty litter.
• 22:35
  Apryl: If you know you run out every four to six weeks, set up a simple subscription through Amazon, Walmart, or Target, and they will deliver to you.
• 22:45
  Apryl: Again, so much time and mental bandwidth saved by doing this.
• 22:54
  Apryl: You're not realizing at 10 p.m.
• 22:56
  Apryl: you're out of kitty litter or snack bags, and you're not squeezing in that extra trip just for that one item.
• 23:03
  Apryl: And here's what I will say think about every single time you run in for that extra trip to the grocery store, how many times do you end up buying more than that one item?
• 23:14
  Apryl: It can actually save you money by doing grocery delivery or these subscription delivery services.
• 23:22
  Apryl: Another thing is speaking of subscription delivery services, if your family likes things like the meal, like the meal delivery services where everything comes to you and you just cook it, that's another thing that's super helpful for you.
• 23:36
  Apryl: I've tried that in the past.
• 23:37
  Apryl: I didn't love it, but for you, it may be something that works.
• 23:41
  Apryl: So try that out.
• 23:43
  Apryl: By doing this, you made those decisions once, and now they just run quietly in the background while you focus on your child, taking care of the house, taking care of you, all of those things.
• 23:55
  Apryl: The more of the mental load we can offload, the less stress that you're gonna feel.
• 24:02
  Apryl: And remember, when when mama ain't happy, ain't nobody happy, right?
• 24:06
  Apryl: So that's what we want to get to is we want mom happy, mom not stressed, so that we can be that.
• 24:12
  Apryl: We know that we have to be the co-regulation, right?
• 24:16
  Apryl: We have to regulate our kids, but we have to be that regulated, grounded person.
• 24:20
  Apryl: And doing these small things can be very helpful.
• 24:23
  Apryl: Okay, next up is this is an ADHD families only.
• 24:28
  Apryl: There's another category, and that's the meds and school form.
• 24:33
  Apryl: I am giving myself a pat on the back for this one this year because I had to take my daughter in for a doctor's appointment, and I was like, oh, while I'm going, I'm taking the med form.
• 24:44
  Apryl: So I did two birds, one stone done, and I've got that med form ready to go, send to the school nurse on day one.
• 24:53
  Apryl: So, two things you can do this week that will save you from major first day stress is number one, schedule or complete your med check.
• 25:01
  Apryl: If your child needs a medication check before school, get that on the calendar now.
• 25:05
  Apryl: Pick up the phone, call your doctor, get that on the calendar.
• 25:09
  Apryl: Not three weeks from now.
• 25:11
  Apryl: The sooner you do that, we know like pediatricians especially get backed up this time of year with all the like back to school physicals for sports and all that stuff.
• 25:19
  Apryl: Get it on the calendar as soon as you can.
• 25:21
  Apryl: And then you also do it before school starts where schedules are full and now fall sports have started and all of those things.
• 25:28
  Apryl: So get that on your calendar now.
• 25:29
  Apryl: And number two, get the school medication form signed now.
• 25:33
  Apryl: Most districts require a doctor-signed form for meds given by the school nurse.
• 25:39
  Apryl: So if your kiddo is on like a short acting medicine that they have to take something midday, you usually have to have a form for that.
• 25:45
  Apryl: So call the pediatrician or your psychiatrist's office, whoever is your prescribing physician, ask for the school medication form and get it completed before the first day.
• 25:56
  Apryl: For us, um, I have to print out the form from my school district because there's multiple school districts around the doctor's office, doesn't just have this form.
• 26:06
  Apryl: So I go onto my school website, print it, and you can actually email it into them or fax it into them for most doctors' offices.
• 26:15
  Apryl: I mean, who even uses fax nowadays?
• 26:17
  Apryl: So email it to them.
• 26:18
  Apryl: Um, and then they can email it back too.
• 26:20
  Apryl: So get that done now so that you're not standing in the office on day one realizing that they can't give your child the medication without the form.
• 26:30
  Apryl: And then you're not trying to hand deliver medication midday because the paperwork isn't done and you're waiting till that gets done and you're going to the school every day, dropping off medicine.
• 26:40
  Apryl: So do that now.
• 26:41
  Apryl: You're removing an entire category of stress before school even starts with that one little phone call.
• 26:47
  Apryl: So do that.
• 26:48
  Apryl: Now we're gonna touch on to that bedtime battle zone because you already know sleep and ADHD are complicated.
• 26:57
  Apryl: So, especially with summer, I mean, I did this whole summer episode about ways to help.
• 27:04
  Apryl: And we talked about like letting your sleep schedule slide, hopefully not more than an hour.
• 27:10
  Apryl: Ours, I'll be honest, has slipped to like an hour and a half.
• 27:14
  Apryl: And so we want to start getting our kids ready for school.
• 27:20
  Apryl: Okay.
• 27:20
  Apryl: So if your child has been like mine and has been going to bed an hour to an hour and a half or more, you know, later during the summer than the school year, and school starts in two weeks.
• 27:32
  Apryl: Here's what we don't want to do.
• 27:34
  Apryl: We don't want on like Saturday night of the weekend that school is starting, announcing, hey, it's eight o'clock, it's time for bed.
• 27:42
  Apryl: And like your kids, like, what?
• 27:44
  Apryl: Usually I'm like outriding bikes at this time.
• 27:46
  Apryl: Like, no, I'm not going to bed, right?
• 27:48
  Apryl: This is a complete recipe for disaster, the fight, the anxiety, and a child who can't fall to sleep because their body's not used to it, their melatonin rhythm isn't ready for this.
• 28:00
  Apryl: So instead of that like abrupt, it's time for bed at eight o'clock when they're used to going to bed at 10, start slowly.
• 28:08
  Apryl: We want to think in small shifts here.
• 28:11
  Apryl: So move bedtime earlier by 10 to 15 minutes each night.
• 28:15
  Apryl: So I'm looking at the calendar going, we have two weeks until school starts.
• 28:22
  Apryl: And I've got to move back 90 minutes.
• 28:26
  Apryl: That actually works out pretty dang nice to move our bedtime back about 10 minutes each night.
• 28:33
  Apryl: So we're slowly easing into this.
• 28:37
  Apryl: And morning, if they're your kiddos struggled getting up in the morning, same thing.
• 28:43
  Apryl: We're slowly easing into waking up five or 10 minutes earlier each morning instead of that abrupt, you know, they've been sleeping until 8:30 and now they have to get up at 6:30, whatever that is.
• 28:54
  Apryl: We're slowly easing them into it.
• 28:56
  Apryl: Okay.
• 28:57
  Apryl: So slowly ease them into it and then use the tools you already have.
• 29:02
  Apryl: Use an Alexa or a phone alarm or something that'll announce time to get ready for bed, time to go to bed, right?
• 29:10
  Apryl: You can also help their bodies start to recognize that it's time to go to sleep by dimming lights earlier.
• 29:17
  Apryl: We're still in daylight savings, so the sun is still up later.
• 29:21
  Apryl: Your kiddos can be like, it's still light outside.
• 29:24
  Apryl: Why am I going to bed?
• 29:25
  Apryl: Right.
• 29:26
  Apryl: But by us shutting down the lights earlier, closing the curtains, use blackout blinds if you can, and then turn off all the overheads and only use lamplight.
• 29:38
  Apryl: Starting to do that earlier in the evening is going to help their body start to um get ready for bed and start to that melatonin process earlier than if we leave all the like you know, the natural light coming in, all the lights are on.
• 29:57
  Apryl: We want to get their body ready for sleep and start signaling to the body it's time to start getting ready for sleep.
• 30:06
  Apryl: And also start limiting screens a bit earlier in the evening so their brain isn't wired at 9 p.m.
• 30:12
  Apryl: So, you know, if they've been playing or watching movies, been used to that, again, just slow little baby steps here, like five minutes earlier, we're turning off screens.
• 30:23
  Apryl: And then we do that slowly over time until it's time to get go to school.
• 30:29
  Apryl: If you normally read at bedtime and summer reading has slipped, start gently reintroducing it.
• 30:36
  Apryl: We know that our kids are gonna have to read, our elementary kids especially are gonna have to read.
• 30:41
  Apryl: We have study time for our older kids, so start reintroducing that, you know, five, 10 minutes at a time, not their full 20 minutes.
• 30:49
  Apryl: Five minutes at a time.
• 30:50
  Apryl: Hey, let's read for introducing that.
• 30:53
  Apryl: I've done an episode on this before too.
• 30:56
  Apryl: If five minutes is too long, do a two-minute, two minutes read.
• 30:59
  Apryl: Maybe you read to your kiddo for two minutes or five minutes while they're brushing their teeth.
• 31:03
  Apryl: You're like, let's set a two-minute timer.
• 31:05
  Apryl: So you brush your teeth for long enough and I'm gonna read to you.
• 31:07
  Apryl: Just starting to get back into those routines and making them normal again.
• 31:13
  Apryl: You're easing their body back into the school rhythm instead of slamming it into a new schedule.
• 31:19
  Apryl: We're gonna ease them in.
• 31:20
  Apryl: This is going to help us be regulated, and it's gonna help them start the school year regulated as well.
• 31:26
  Apryl: At this point in the episode, I have named a lot of options, and I don't want you to feel like you have to do it all.
• 31:34
  Apryl: Here's the rule that applies here.
• 31:38
  Apryl: Be intentional about the things that matter most for your sanity, and then we're going to let the rest go.
• 31:46
  Apryl: So ask yourself, what are one to two changes that would take the biggest load off of me before school starts?
• 31:55
  Apryl: So is that having your kids get their clothes ready and doing the launch pad system the night before?
• 32:01
  Apryl: Is it making the choices on the meals?
• 32:03
  Apryl: What is it that's going to be take the biggest load off of you that you can start implementing?
• 32:10
  Apryl: So, again, for you, it might be deciding that breakfast and lunch once, setting up the weekly grocery delivery, getting the med check and school form done, starting that slow bedtime shift this week, creating a launch pad and practicing it during these last few weeks of summer.
• 32:27
  Apryl: Pick one or two.
• 32:30
  Apryl: Hear me out.
• 32:30
  Apryl: One or two.
• 32:31
  Apryl: We're not gonna try to overhaul everything.
• 32:34
  Apryl: Write them down and give yourself a timeline.
• 32:36
  Apryl: I'll set up grocery delivery and decide on breakfast lunch plan by this weekend.
• 32:42
  Apryl: We're gonna start shifting bedtime by 10 minutes tonight.
• 32:46
  Apryl: You are not designing a whole new life.
• 32:49
  Apryl: You are picking the heaviest rock and moving them now.
• 32:52
  Apryl: So you're not carrying them in a few weeks when everything else fits.
• 32:59
  Apryl: Back to school doesn't magically become easy because you planned.
• 33:03
  Apryl: There's still gonna be the new teachers, new social dynamics, possible meltdowns, forgotten papers.
• 33:08
  Apryl: But when you decide a few things ahead of time, take chores off your plate, ease into sleep, and handle meds and forms now, you go in this season less loaded, less reactive, and more regulated.
• 33:21
  Apryl: Remember our racing ADHD principle, support what your child's brain needs and your brain needs and let go of what it doesn't.
• 33:30
  Apryl: Next time in the series, we're gonna turn to your ADHD kid, what their brain needs for back to school in terms of routines, regulation, and expectations, and how to help them without turning into a drill sergeant.
• 33:44
  Apryl: If this episode helped you exhale a little, send it to another mom in your world who is staring down August and feeling like one long Sunday night energy.
• 33:54
  Apryl: You're not the only one carrying all of this, and you don't have to carry it alone.
• 33:59
  Apryl: I'm April and I will see you in the next episode.
• 34:01
  Brian Bradford: Thanks so much for joining us for today's conversation on raising ADHD.
• 34:05
  Brian Bradford: Remember, raising ADHD kids doesn't have to feel overwhelming.
• 34:09
  Brian Bradford: Small shifts can make a big difference.
• 34:11
  Brian Bradford: If you found this episode helpful, it would mean the world if you would hit subscribe, if you would leave a review, or if you shared it with another parent or teacher who needs this support.
• 34:20
  Brian Bradford: And don't forget to join us next week for more real talk, practical tips, and encouragement.
• 34:25
  Brian Bradford: Until then, you've got this, and we've got your back.