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Back to School Burnout: Impacts of Work Stress on School Stress

Your work stress can impact your kids' school stress

Author

Mike Hopkins
September 11, 2023

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Read Time: 3 minutes

This Week in Wellbeing Matters…

  • Studies Show: When parents feel more burned out from their jobs, their adolescent children also tend to feel more burned out from school.

  • Inspiring Inspiration: Author James Clear on treating daily habits and routines as meaningful moments to appreciate rather than rushed obligations.

  • Readers are Leaders: Links from Harvard Business Review, Washington Post, Wall Street Journal and shondaland

Studies Show…

With the school year now in full swing pretty much everywhere in the United States, parents are feeling the shift. In our house, we have one kid in daycare and one in pre-K. The one in daycare started right up on a normal schedule the week after Labor Day, but the pre-K started with three straight half days to kick off the school year. There have also been events already, like “Popsicles with Principal” and post-drop-off parents coffee chat. Then there is “Back to School” night and fundraisers and and and. We aren’t in the phase of sports and clubs yet! All this is to say that we are feeling the shift from the end of summer to the start of the school year and it’s not even the midpoint of September yet.

A study published in the European Journal of Developmental Psychology concluded that adolescent children can experience burnout with their schooling in conjunction with their parents’ burnout from work. It makes sense when you consider that the person we are at work is often — sometimes even more so these days with remote work — brought home. It can be hard to shake off work stress and burnout when switching hats from worker to parent.

Next time you have an early morning call with a colleague you know has kids that just recently started school maybe check in and see how they are doing. Has it been a tough transition to slide back into the school-year routine of packing snacks and lunches and getting the kids out the door by a certain time? Do they have it down to a science? Or maybe they are struggling. You won’t know if you don’t ask.

What steps have you taken in your role in Benefits/HR/Rewards or in your personal life, to help ease the transition back to school? Reply to this email or comment below.

Inspiring Inspiration

"Many people view their habits and routines as obstacles or, at the very least, obligations to get through. Making the morning coffee, driving your kids to the next activity, preparing the next meal—we often see our routines as chores to be completed.

But these are not moments to be dismissed. They are life. Making coffee can be a peaceful ritual—perhaps even a fulfilling one—if done with care rather than rushed to completion. It’s about the amount of attention you devote to these simple moments, and whether you choose to appreciate them or bulldoze through them on the way to the next task.

Find the beauty and joy in your daily rituals and you will find beauty and joy in your daily life. To love your habits is to love your days, and to love your days is to love your life."

James Clear
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Thanks and have a great week of wellbeing!

These comments are my own, not those of my employer.

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