Culture Post: Back-to-School Chaos? Parents Get Just 76 Minutes of Me-Time Each Day

The following is excerpted from an online article posted by StudyFinds.

What’s the first thing you think about when waking up in the morning? For a third of parents, the answer is: “I have so much to do today.”

That’s according to a recent survey of 1,500 parents of school-aged kids and 500 teachers – 97 percent of whom are parents of school-aged children themselves, and more than one-third (35%) of whom have the same first thought when they wake up. During the back-to-school season, both parents and teachers most commonly feel overwhelmed (26% and 25%) more than any other emotion.

Teachers and parents struggle to adjust to varying schedules, including after-school activities, class, and even work (65% for teachers; 59% for parents), as well as not getting as much sleep (55% and 48%, respectively) and new meal times (46% and 47%, respectively).

It all starts with the morning routine, with the average parent waking at 6:10 a.m. and spending about 64 minutes on tasks such as making breakfast (49%), taking a shower (42%), giving their kids a bath (39%), eating breakfast (30%), and packing school lunches (25%). In fact, parents are so overwhelmed that many admit to making a few morning routine mistakes. Those include forgetting to pack a lunch (50%), oversleeping (50%), and forgetting to eat breakfast (49%).

The poll results revealed that parents are then plagued by thoughts of additional household tasks about three times each working day. Once parents arrive home from work, typically around 4:45 p.m., the top evening chore is tidying up the house (55%), followed by spending time with their family (52%), eating dinner (51%), and catching up on work they didn’t finish (49%).

Source: StudyFinds
https://studyfinds.org/back-to-school-parents-me-time/

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