WELCOME BACK TO SCHOOL BITCHES!!!

What’s going on here:

  • 📌 the fridge

  • 🤓 NERDY ADULT CALENDAR THING

  • 📅 Events this weekend

📌 the fridge

  • Olivia rodrigo's festival is at the great park in two weeks and every dollar goes to women and girls

    • Daisy Chain Fields lands at the Great Park on Aug 29: 14 female-led acts including Chappell Roan, Stevie Nicks, Mitski, Doechii, KATSEYE and The Breeders, up to 45,000 people, and all net profits going to groups like Baby2Baby, the National Women's Law Center, and Planned Parenthood. General admission is on a waitlist now, so if you have a kid who would sob about this, get on it this weekend. Park and ride shuttle passes are still for sale, which tells you what parking is going to be like. If you live anywhere near the Great Park, mentally block out that Saturday.

  • A few free events this weekend:

    • 🪁 Long Beach Kite Festival | Sunday, noon to 7pm, Granada Beach. 200 free kites handed to kids at 2pm, 300 more to parents at 3pm. Kite lessons, face painting, and a Bangladeshi string-cutting competition.

    • 🎸 Summer Nights Under the Stars | Saturday, 7pm, Pearson Park Amphitheatre in Anaheim. Free outdoor concert, all ages, Latin soul band.

    • 🚂 Free train rides at Goathill Junction | Saturday and Sunday, 10am to 3:30pm, Fairview Park in Costa Mesa. A 12-minute loop on a mini railroad, free, donations encouraged. Every rider must be 31 inches and able to walk to the train themselves. Measure before you promise.

    • 🎒 Back-to-school fair with free backpacks | Saturday, 11am to 3pm, Adriana's Insurance, 17771 Cowan, Irvine. Free backpacks, school supplies, haircuts, and manicures.

    • 🏖️ Surf City Artisan Fair | Saturday and Sunday, 10am to 6pm, Pier Plaza in Huntington Beach. Free to browse, sitting right at Main and PCH, so you can stack it with the beach and call the whole day handled.

  • Your kid can eat free on sunday at like 40 restaurants

    • Irvine Company's Kids Eat Free runs through Aug 27 and covers 40-plus restaurants at Fashion Island, Irvine Spectrum, The Market Place, and a bunch of neighborhood centers. One free kids' meal with a qualifying adult entrée. The catch worth knowing: most of them are valid Sunday through Thursday only, so Sunday is your weekend window, not Saturday. Dine-in only, kids usually 12 and under, and you claim it through the Retail Therapy site or app before you order. Two more Sundays left after this one.

      Wanna advertise on the fridge?

🤓 NERDY ADULT CALENDAR THING

Everyone types the school year dates into their phone calendar in August BUUUT a reminder that goes off at 8am on the day is a notification telling you about a problem you are already inside of. Set every single one for 5pm the day before instead. That is when you can still text someone about pickup, move a meeting, or make the weird cardboard drive in car for your kid.

Let AI do the calendar adds for ya

Copy & paste this prompt into whatever LLM is connected to your google calendar (along with your school's schedule text or a screenshot of the calendar):

The Direct "Day-Before Reminder:

Look at this school schedule/text. For every no-school day, break, half day, early dismissal, picture day, or first day back from break, create an event in my Google Calendar at 5:00 PM on the day BEFORE the event. Title each event like this: 'Tomorrow: [Event Name]' (e.g., 'Tomorrow: Minimum Day - Early Dismissal')."

Create Events on the Actual Date

Read this school schedule/text. Create all-day calendar events in my Google Calendar for all no-school days, minimum days, picture days, and first days back from breaks.

✨Orange County school district calendars 2026-27, all in one place✨

🔧 Tired Mom Hack

❝

Character yoga on YouTube. Get your kid to chill out with Spidey, Stitch, Moana, Elsa, and a bunch more.

📅 Stuff to do: August 15-16

North-ish OC

Saturday

Sunday

Central-ish OC

Saturday

Sunday

South-ish OC

Saturday

Sunday

Happening All Month

⏰ Last call, these end this weekend

🎨 Summer festivals + shows still running

🖼️ Exhibits

📆 Same time, every week

🎶 Live music + movies outside

🌴 The stuff that's always there, all in one place

What does it mean?
📚 = library event
🍊 = recurring event
🍻/🍷 = get your drink on
🎵 = live music (for adults)

👯Meet Other Exhausted Parents

🤝 The Little Book Club: Popsicles in Space | Fullerton | Sun 8/16, 10:00 AM
@themomwalkco.fullerton | Instagram

🤝 Long Run, 8.5 Miles | Garden Grove | Sun 8/16, 5:45 AM warm-up, 6:00 AM start
@motherrunners_oc | Instagram

📌 the events in this section are ones that fall on the weekend, but a lot of these groups have events during the week as well in case you’re looking for more!

✌🏻 See you next week!

As always, if you have anything you want to submit (events, news, hacks, recipes), feedback or hate mail, feel free to hit reply.

This newsletter will always be free, but if you’d like to support Shitty Mom Guide, consider buying me a coffee. This newsletter is a forever work-in-progress and wouldn’t be possible without you.

Much love and caffeine,
Frances

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Shitty Mom Guide is not liable for errors, omissions, or changes to events. Always double check your shit before you leave the house. We can’t include every event, but we do our best to curate the most interesting one-off events happening every weekend. This newsletter sometimes includes affiliate links, meaning I may earn a small commission if you make a purchase (at no additional cost to you). Gotta find a way to keep this thing going!

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