UNITED STATES—Its official school is back in session for most students. Oh, I’m not just talking about elementary school, but middle schoolers, high school students and undergraduate students. The chaos is coming back to the lives for many families, and I hate to say this, but it’s actually a good thing. Why routine creates organization is a good thing, at least for me.
The problem with school being back in session, you have much more responsibilities. For starters, the drop off and pickup of the kids at school could be a major stressor. Traffic alone can be a headache. I feel for parents who have to endure this, so imagine doing this for multiple children who all go to different schools.
I heard tales from my sister about having to get off of work at a specific time and making sure she had her ‘spot’ to pick up her kids. It was like kill or be killed because some parents consider this like a sport people. With school, you have lunches that have to be prepared for elementary and middle schoolers. That incurs more costs than usual, not to mention most kids aren’t just utilizing those items for school lunch solely for school; they tend to eat those items at home.
So, for many parents you have to implement additional costs not just for school lunches, but for transportation. The back and forth to school that was not taking place the last 2-3 months, is now in force for the next several months, which means an additional gas cost for mom or dad or both.
Now, something I witnessed recently was the back-to-school shopping. Jeez, I forgot how stressful and expensive that could be. My parents didn’t have to do that as much because when you got to a private school you have to wear uniforms. The uniforms were not cheap, but it was a ton of clothing, shoes and so much more. What I saw recently at the local mall was lots of parents, lots of spending, lots of cash being spent over credit cards, which I found surprising.
Then I totally forgot to mention that you have school supplies as well. Each school is different, some have the students purchase a ton of items and not just stuff the student needs, there tends to be items for the classroom as a whole. Some schools are just greedy if you ask me to be honest which I don’t like. Not all families have a ton of funds when it comes to spending expenses. Schools should be considerate of such things.
When it comes to high school and college students those costs skyrocket even more. How so? You have more expensive items to purchase, especially for many parents sending their students to college for the first time. You are talking about tuition alone, which is super expensive. You have tech to purchase, you have housing items, even though its a very small dorm, you have books, which is beyond expensive, easily $500 to $1k per semester if not more, than you have room and board as well.
Yeah, imagine if you have more than one child, you’re sending to college or children in all various levels of school. The more the merrier, I guess, but not actually. Last thing to think about is traffic. You are going to see a ton more traffic on the road, which will increase your time to and from school to work and so much more, bring the patience because you’re going to need it. The normalcy that so many of want and need is back in the universe, so rather you love it or not it’s time to embrace it.
Written By Jason Jones
