The Return of Parent Group Chats: A Back-to-School Tradition Reignited

With the end of summer approaching, parents’ WhatsApp group chats are stirring back to life, gradually growing louder as August winds down. Initially, the messages are sparse — reminders about after-school registration, polite thanks, and warm wishes for the remainder of summer. Soon, questions about sports programs and school start dates begin to appear.

Before long, these group chats will be in full swing, with notifications buzzing continuously throughout the day and often late into the evening.

At any given moment, I am part of roughly ten parent WhatsApp groups. Some are permanent, linked to each of my sons’ classes or their sports teams like soccer and tennis. Throughout the year, temporary groups emerge as needed — one for an 8-year-old’s birthday party with adorable photos from Rye Playland, another organizing transportation to an Islanders game where the kids had a fantastic time.

These chats cover everything: after-school schedules, homework assignments, carpool logistics, birthday celebrations, and teacher gifts. They discuss meeting locations, which coach to contact, recommended doctors, and even what color shirt children should wear on a given day. Sometimes the messages are as simple as a weather alert — “It’s going to rain, don’t forget umbrellas for drop-off.” Occasionally, the tone is humorously passive-aggressive, prompting me to capture screenshots and share them in smaller, private groups with a laughing emoji.

Reflecting on pre-digital times, communication was far less immediate. Parents relied on notes sent home in backpacks or school calendars for event information. Soccer schedules were printed at the start of the season and posted on refrigerators, rarely changing. Another method was the phone chain — a system where one parent would call another early in the morning to spread news, such as a snow day, passing the message down a list alphabetically. By the early 2000s, these phone chains evolved into group emails and text message threads.

The surge in WhatsApp group activity began during the pandemic, when remote schooling created a chaotic environment of Zoom calls, multiple apps with challenging names, and numerous passwords. Parents turned to real-time group chats as an essential way to share information quickly and stay connected, sparking the rise of these widespread communication networks.