Parenting coach explains why parents need to 'reduce the load' for kids at the start of school year

The transition back to school can be a challenging time for both parents and children alike. The relaxed routine of the holidays can make readjusting to the demands of school life a daunting task. Additionally, returning to school comes with its own set of pressures, including stress, competition, and a multitude of extracurricular commitments. Balancing these various aspects can indeed pose a significant challenge. Therefore, Dr. Chelsey Hauge-Zavaleta—who goes by @drchelsey_parenting on TikTok - has a simple plan for all the parents out there. This plan is essentially to take things easy and let the chips fall in their place at the beginning of the school year. Though this may sound easy and ineffective, Chelsey, in her video, explains in detail how this strategy can bring calm in chaos.

Dr. Chelsey Hauge-Zavaleta is a parenting coach and a mom who, with her videos, aims to help parents, children and teachers through various issues that might be troubling them in their lives. In her recent video, she advises parents and children on how to start their school year without making it a stressful affair. Her suggestion is not to miss out on rest and make the mistake of going at 100 miles per hour. This topic is extremely crucial since 45% of students have accepted feeling stressed almost every day at school, as reported by Cross River Therapy.

Dr. Hauge-Zavaleta begins the video by saying, "If this is your child's first or second week of school, you need to go easy, easy, easy, easy." She asks the parents not to overwhelm their children and extend themselves by filling out the calendar with many activities. Her advice is not to do more than one activity. The parenting coach suggests, "Have at least two or three days where there is nothing after school, you go home and have a super easy day."

The reasoning she presents is that children are going through a lot during the transition phase and will struggle more if they have to deal with so many activities at once. It will be harmful to their overall health and well-being. She explains it by saying, "Going to a new school, going to a new classroom, to a new teacher, it takes a lot of cognitive social, and emotional work. Your task as a parent is to reduce other demands. Reduce the demands. Reduce the load. Make it easy to cooperate. Set your child up for success by going to bed early, having a good nourishing dinner, and being easy in the afternoon. Have a movie night, stay home and look for lizards, read a bunch of books, go to the library, and go home and read."

Chelsey requests the parents to have a slow start so that the children have time to adjust. The comment section found this suggestion to be worthwhile and also revealed their own experiences. @ttpearl is glad that this video might make other parents try out this method, "Thank you for bringing attention to this. I can't fathom loading them up for sports or after-school activities." @hugsrfun explains what she and her family do to ease up the first week, "We have pizza and movie nights or the equivalent for the first week! Comfort comfort comfort!"