This episode may contain explicit language. Welcome to Karen Feeding, the show that's as honest and messy as parenting itself. I'm Elizabeth Newkamp. I write the homeschool and family travel blog, Dutch Dutch goose. I'm the mom to Henry who's 13, Oliver who's 11, and Teddy who's 8. We are currently in Atlanta, Georgia. I'm Zach Rosen. I make another podcast. It's called The Festify Show. I am Dad from Noah. He just turned eight. And Ami, who's about to turn five. We are back in Detroit. Welcome back to the U.S. of America. Thank you. Thank you. I'm Lucy Lopez. I host another podcast as well, The Mamas Cica Rica. I'm mother to Amelia, who's 15,

Avery who's 12, and we live in Mayan. So this week, instead of taking a listener question,

we're digging into some of our own back-to-school challenging. And we're not doing it alone.

We've got Scotty Weintraub with us. She's the creator of Reframe Parenting and works with families to turn school stress into something more manageable.

She's going to help us think through what this transition really looks like and how to advocate for our kids.

Yeah, so stick around. You don't want to miss it.

We're here with Scotty Weintraub, creator of Refram Parenting and the host of The Unlocking School Success Podcast.

Scotty is a parenting coach who helps families navigate the school system, offering tools and strategies so parents can advocate effectively for their kids.

We couldn't have you here at a better time as we're all heading back to school.

And our listeners who've been with us before know that Zach and Lucy have both been dealing with some back to school struggles of their own.

So we thought this would be the perfect time to bring you in.

They're going to share what's going on in their families. And then we're hoping that you can give us some ideas on how they can handle those challenges. And then after that, we're actually just going to get some general advice on moving through transitions and the type of work that you do. Does that sound good? That sounds great. Thanks for having me.

Yeah, we're so excited. All right. Well, Zach, you are back in the U.S. The kids have started school?

They have been there for four hours. Today was day one. We got back to the state, Scotty, on Saturday.

We are recording this on Tuesday, and we have since dropped the kids off at school.

It was two different schools in our neighborhood, one of which my daughter Noah, who just

turned eight, she's in second grade, so she is returning to the school that she was at for kindergarten,

but she missed all of first grade with her class because we were in Amsterdam.

And so the situation with her, I mean, we'll see how it goes. She's halfway through her first day of school of the year.

But it's like, you know, the thing that I'm wondering about is she had all these deep relationships with these kids in kindergarten and then they proceeded their friendship friendship you know they went on and did first grade together and she was out off doing her own thing

which was really valuable i think in in a lot of ways but now she's back and i'm wondering what kind of

you know kind of retroactive fomo she might be feeling and just how she will be able to plug back in to community.

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