Some members of our families received complimentary Invisalign® treatment but we really love it and all of the opinions below are our own.
HAPPY NEW YEAR! It may only be August, but for moms and dads and families, this is the real-time to celebrate the New Year. Some of us might still be in the midst of summer mode, but we are winding down and beginning to prepare for the new school year.
We are starting to plan our kids after school activities. We are starting to get emails and mail from the school. We are starting to connect again with the local moms who we may not have seen with all of our busy summer schedules. We are gearing up for carpools and back to school shopping.
DENISE
The Family New Year is also the best time for Family New Rules. With my boys away at camp this summer, I have thought about things that have been working and things that haven’t. As a mom who doesn’t cook, I realized, one of the biggest fights with my boys is about food. What to have for a snack, what to have for dinner. Well now, I’ve hung a sign on the refrigerator, in preparation for the new school year, that lists each day and what dinner will be served, so they know in advance. I have always been organized with our daily schedules, sending an email out every week to their dad, my mom, and our sitter with all of the activities and who is dropping off and picking up. I have always had a central dry/ erase calendar in the kitchen that is color-coordinated for each child and, because we are divorced, for each parent as well. Now is the time to add more organization with the daily dinner list, and other new rules. We will have a family meeting to sit and go through our Family New Year. We also will tackle technology rules and homework rules.
It’s also the best time to celebrate how responsible they have been with their ®Invisalign® treatment. They both have new, improved smiles and are proud to show them off. Who knew that visiting someone like a Dentist in Middletown, for example, could have made that much difference to a person’s confidence? They have been so great taking charge of their treatment: remembering to wear the clear aligners for 20-22 hours a day, changing them weekly (since treatment times are now up to two times faster with weekly aligner changes), keeping their cases with them and brushing their teeth after each meal before putting the aligners back in. The process of getting Invisalign is generally not as long as getting braces (if you’re consistent). It could be as simple as visiting a Phoenix Invisalign dental clinic, for example, and speaking to a professional who can provide the best advice on moving forward with this treatment. In case there are any changes, a dentist can monitor invisalign treatment for you and your family. This means they can adjust the treatment if it isn’t going well, but the only way we can know if things are changing is to do what the dentist says to the letter. So, it’s great that they are keeping on top of their treatment. It shows me that they can handle more responsibilities. I can’t wait to sit with them to decide what to add to their New Year list!
MELISSA
Back to School means back to the juggle. Back to school can feel so overwhelming for so many mothers. It’s important to ease into all the routines instead of making that switch the night before and expecting all the kids to just go to bed at a new hour. You do have to start planning everything earlier so you don’t feel maniacal when it happens and so the kids don’t feel lethargic and confused.
Planning schedules early is crucial and making those appointments now will make life easier. For our household, our kids are going to have Back to School orthodontist appointments before school starts. We are doing an exciting giveaway that you can all enter here to win an Invisalign treatment. The winner will be selected at the end of the year, just in time for a holiday gift! With Invisalign treatment, we won’t have to worry about scheduling many of these visits because they get all their clear aligners in advance for weekly changes, and this saves us all so much time. We also aren’t back and forth to the orthodontist due to broken brackets or wires, either. So, at the top of our to-do list is our Invisalign appointment at our dentist that is pretty similar to our friend’s Dentist in Seattle. The other big one on our to do list is back to school shopping. In the past we have always waited because we are in denial about school starting and we end up at the store with so many supplies sold out. This year we won’t live in denial and we will plan ahead. Another big to do for our family is all the school lunches and meal planning. My big goal this year is to have at least 3 home cooked meals planned each week and where we can all sit down together as a family. A mom can dream right?!