Daughters And Mothers

Moms Q&A: Back to School Shopping Strategies

Moms Talk is a new feature on Patch that is part of a new initiative on our sites to reach out to moms and families. Patch invites you and your circle of friends to help build a community of support for mothers and their families right here in the East Windsor-Hightstown-Cranbury area. Each week in Moms Talk, our Moms Council — Susan Masone, Siri Heinrichs, Cristina Fowler, Christine O'Brien and our intrepid columnist Lauren Kim — takes your questions, gives advice and shares solutions to the problems vexing all of us. Have a question you would like to share, or just want to provide your opinion on the question of the week? Head over to the comments section to do just that. So grab a cup of coffee and settle in as we start the conversation today with the following question:

What is your approach for back to school shopping? Do you stick to a budget or use any cost-cutting measures?

Christine O’Brien: I try to start my shopping early to take advantage of summer sales. My son’s elementary school usually includes a standard supply list with the year-end report card, so I have something to work with.

I also keep a large plastic tote filled with basic items purchased on clearance (usually before Halloween or Thanksgiving). This tote is especially handy mid-school year when the kids begin to run out of certain supplies. However, the shopping is never completed until after the first day of school. The kids always come home with requests for additional items. Thankfully, that list is usually short. We are not sure what to expect with our daughter starting high school!

Susan Masone: In the middle of the summer, Staples was running a $.01 sale. I picked up as much as I could knowing that I would have too many glue sticks or pencils, but I knew they would not go to waste. My neighbor has found other sales, and we exchange our excess. I don’t purchase all supplies until after the beginning of the school year...not knowing exactly what each individual teacher wants. When all is said and done, I donate the excess to our Girl Scout troops, school and church. Someone is always looking for school supplies at different times of the year.

Of Mothers, Daughters and the Wounds That Shape Us… | Anjuelle ...

Anger and ultimate hurt, usually possess an ancestral quality.

The emotional trauma that both mother and daughter experience and inflict each upon the other stands rooted in a history of tense relations between the mothers and daughters from generations past in the family.

Bringing awareness to the fact they live embroiled in a larger we of interactions that cam before them offers the first part of healing.

“Behold, I was shapen in iniquity; and in sin did my mother conceive me. ” Psalm 51:5