Today it’s time to tackle the aspect of back-to-school that I’m perhaps least excited about: getting back on all those apps. I bet there’s half a dozen you’ve been ignoring all summer. And now that the phantom dings have finally stopped… it’s time to start again. Well, Meg St-Esprit has a very satisfying rant about the pings that’ll be running your life again soon.

“PowerSchools, Class Dojo, SeeSaw, TeamSnap, some app that manages our lunch accounts (or claims to, but actually sucks) — how many apps can one community use? A lot, apparently, and from talking to friends I know this is the case across the country,” she writes. “While our Boomer parents love to tell us to ‘just put our phones down and be present,’ every facet of modern parenting is driven by push alerts and group chats. We can’t, mom.” You’ll find yourself nodding along to this one.

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Elizabeth Narins is tackling a tough subject today — the prospect of your dog getting aggressive with your kid. She writes: “Chances are you love your dog like a child, and your dog loves your child like it's their own. But that doesn't mean both are in the clear for hostile behavior, warns Beverly Ulbrich, a San Francisco-based dog behavioralist and owner of The Pooch Coach Dog Training.” Here’s what you need to know.