The school year is starting. While adults without school-age kids in the house are content to wax nostalgic about Trapper Keepers, parents with children in the house are singing a different tune.
The beginning of the school years can mean lots of stress for parents. We’ve talked about wellness for children at the start of a new school year, so now we’ve got some advice from the moms and dads looking anxiously at the calendar. The solution to keeping things in order – on demand.
That Morning Wake-Up Call
If you’re a night owl, early morning bus schedules are not your friend. It can be quite jarring to have to get up at 5:45 in the morning to see one’s bundles of joy safely off to school. It’s key to get to bed early the night before and get good-quality sleep.
Easier said than done? Your mattress might be the culprit. Is it over 10 years old? Lumpy? If there’s no time to shop, order a comfy mattress on demand from Casper or Leesa – you have 100 days to try them out.
Yet another way to ensure a sound night of sleep is to get a massage at night, delivered to your home. (Zeel Massage specialty: no need to move a muscle afterward.) Give in-home massage from Zeel a try that first, stressful week of school – in-home massage reduces stress, and helps you enter slumber-land that much sooner. Booking is simple at zeel.com or on the Zeel app for iPhone or Android.
Related read: How Massage Fights Insomnia So You Can Get the Rest You Need
Cleaning Up
It’s always a challenge keeping a house tidy, especially in the chaos of back to school. Consider outsourcing cleaning for the first few weeks of school – there are myriad apps that will deliver a cleaner to your home on demand, like Handy and TaskRabbit. (Practicing radical acceptance is always an option, too.)
Related read: 4 Interior Design Tips to Turn Your Home Into a Spa Oasis
School Germs
With the beginning of the school year comes the rapid plunge into the Petri dish of germs that is the classroom, having a strong immune system is more important than ever. To keep your immune system robust, take a few simple steps. Have jugs of hand sanitizer handy, and send some along to school with the kids. Eat well (if it’s hard to find time to cook nutrient-rich foods, consider a service like Blue Apron, which delivers pre-prepped meals that cook in minutes.) And, of course, massage is a great way to boost the immune system – massage improves circulation and the production of germ-eating white blood cells.
Related read: Massage, a Parent’s Secret Weapon
Don’t worry, it’ll be winter break before you know it. Enjoy the beginning of the school year!
Marcy is the SVP of People and Communications at Zeel. In addition to overseeing the humans of Zeel, Marcy has written about workplace topics for more than 20 years both at Zeel and as VP of Content for Vault.com, a career information web site and publisher.