Getting Kids to School Every Day is Equivalent to an Extra Day’s Work, Study Finds

After surveying 2,000 parents and evaluating workload, Kellogg’s found that parents spend a whopping ten hours per week getting children to school, performing up to 43 different tasks in the process.

That’s a lot of work - but you already know that.

Parents are up at 6 am, on average, and spending one to two hours in the morning packing lunches, repeating themselves, finding clothing, signing permission slips, and doing various things to prepare for the day, like defrosting something for dinner.

It also touched on the fact that kids are slobs. Often they get dressed and then spill on their clothing, which, of course requires moms and dads everywhere to say:

“Please go change your shirt.”

<wait 3 minutes>

“Sweetie, we have to get going, can you please pick out a new shirt?”

<2 minutes later>  

“C’mon we’re late. Grab a new shirt.”

<1 minute later>

“GET YOUR FREAKING SHIRT ON!!!!!”

Because parents are spending so much time getting kids ready, they’re often left to do their personal grooming in the car on the way to work.  Forty-three percent of women reportedly put makeup on during the morning commute and 52% of men said they shave in the car.

It seems there’s never enough time in the morning and parents will have asked their kids to hurry up almost 540 times by the end of the school year.

Bribes are a popular technique to keep things moving, with 50% of parents saying they used them, offerings screen time and electronics in exchange for getting out the door.

Without a doubt, mornings are stressful. Thanks, Kellogg’s, for validating our feelings.

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