As the back-to-school season approaches, I sometimes feel like I’m being thrown into an Olympic competition without any training.

Backpacks emerge from storage, lunch boxes vanish, and group chats come alive. Parents scan school supply lists late at night, wondering why a fourth grader needs six glue sticks, wireless headphones, and “dry erase markers in three colors.”

Beneath all of this is anxiety, and back-to-school season makes it hard to ignore.

Not just children’s anxiety, but my own anxiety too.

Back-to-school has quietly become an emotionally loaded transition, and families feel it. We can joke about forgotten forms and chaotic mornings, but behind the humor is real exhaustion. Many families I know feel worn out before the first bell rings.

Children are carrying more pressure than previous generations, and parents are, too.