10 Tips for Saner Back-to-School Shopping
By Charlotte Hilton Andersen, REDBOOK
My very precocious 1-year-old daughter finally unlocked the mystery of elastic and how to take all her clothes off! Unfortunately, it was when we were standing in the middle of the cardboard maze of school supplies at Target, vainly trying to get all the supplies on my three boys' school lists. If I had been paying more attention-not shocked by the audacity of the store to carry seventeen types of pencils and still not the one my boys' teachers wanted-I might have caught her sooner. As it happened, she got her diaper off and took off across the store in nothing but her sandals and a smile. Streaker on aisle 12?
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Back to school shopping doesn't have to be all screaming and nudity, thankfully. Having done this for years, I have several tips to help you get your school supplies without relinquishing your sanity.
1. Go early. You might get a better sale if you wait, but the more time goes by, the more you risk all the dry erase markers being gone.
2. Go alone. The supplies are for your kids! They should have a say in picking them out, right? True me, they'll adore the camouflage pencil bag you bought them even more if they don't realize there were 300 other options.
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3. Go often. You will forget something; accept this. Take a deep cleansing breath, and return to the labyrinth of shopping carts and aisles.
4. Go online. Free shipping plus extra sales often mean you can get better deals than in the physical stores-and imagine skipping the rushing crowd!
5. Go prepared. You'll need your child's school supply list. Schools won't send it to you (that would make it all too easy, and then where would be the chaotic fun of the Parent Olympics?) but usually local stores will have a half-legible copy.
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6. Go creative. No multiplication flash cards left? Go out and make some! I kid, of course: who has time for that? Try checking the store's other departments, such as the games and art supplies sections.
7. Go easy on yourself. I've seen a mother burst a blood vessel in her eye because of a fight over the last remaining Batman insulated lunch box. Repeat after me: it's not worth the stress.
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8. Go to the school. School secretaries often have the inside scoop on which products are really necessary and which isn't, as well as where to find that last item on your list. Just make sure and use tip number 7 when speaking with them.
9. Go with the flow. The store has no purple folders left? Buy a white folder and write the word "purple" on it in big letters. Yes, I actually did that.
10. Go with a sense of humor. It's the best scavenger hunt… ever? And you thought you'd never have to do one again…
Have you ever seen anything crazy during your back-to-school shopping? What's your best tip?
Charlotte Hilton Andersen is a mom of five and the author of the book The Great Fitness Experiment: One Year of Trying Everything and the blog of the same name.
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