Homework

The city is back! Yellow buses and rushed parents have returned to congest the avenues and side streets of Manhattan as they pick up and drop off children who are officially back to school. Our children went back to school this week along with many others, and we are adapting to the returned schedule-full cadence of life.

Me with some of my friends from college at a performance that some of our children organized all by themselves.

The summer offered a reprieve from being over scheduled, and now we're back to 3 p.m. school pickup times and shuttling off to different sports and extracurricular activities afterward. Honestly, my brain hurts a little thinking about what the year holds for these children. Each child is allowed one activity, and even that feels overwhelming to manage amidst everything else we do. Last year, I was looking for a person who would do pickups and abandoned the mission after interviewing people became a project I was no longer interested in. Nick and I tag-teamed pickup during the spring, and I couldn't wait for summer to come so that we could have a little less kid-induced hustle and bustle.

This kids’ Back-to-School picture that I shared in my IG Stories earlier this week

But we're back and have returned to our no-TV-during-weekdays rule and weekly family meetings. The last two summers, we abandoned the family meeting because the days and nights are always far too dynamic with all the activity that ice cream and ice cream catering bring between May and August. The kids are getting to bed a bit earlier now, and the days are getting darker sooner. Zadie said today as we walked out of our SHMOM facilitator Kathleen's KinHaven House Family Day, "It smells like fall." And she's not wrong. Fall is essentially here, and that means I'm going back to school too.

As mentioned last week, I'm starting the Goldman Sachs 10,000 Small Business (10KSB) program and will be in class from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. twice this week and then once a week following. I have been warned by colleagues who have graduated from this program that I should brace myself for all of the homework that comes with it. I was already feeling it this week when I was melting down in front of my computer one night, trying to get my ice cream shop work done while thinking about 10KSB work that was due. The children heard me venting and were shocked by the fact that I, too, have homework. Tending to their little lives feels like daily homework in every sense of the word, but they don't realize it, of course.

Zadie and Nico doing the figure drawing activity at the KinHaven House Family Day.

As we all transition back to more—more activity during our days, more congestion in the streets and on the buses and trains—I am trying to tether myself to better routines and activities that support some level of tranquility as we near the end of the year. As our children begin to juggle their homework with their respective activities and house chores, I am trying to root myself in the concept of "less"—namely, how can we do less and sign up for less while improving our quality of life?

I don't have the answers yet, but wanted to share what I'm thinking about as we parents embark on the season of more.

Wishing you peace and serenity as the official season of fall approaches.

Petrushka

Your Local Ice Cream Lady & Life/Business Coach

P.S. As I meditate on doing less , I will be on two different panels this month. Maybe see you at one or both!

Sept 14 - a conversation with other food and beverage entrepreneurs about how to start doing business in airports

Sept 23rd - a conversation on the power of art to transform communities at the Schomburg in honor of The Laundromat Project’s 20 Year Anniversary