Parents: The Biggest Challenge is Getting Kids Out the Door on Time

How do you engage parents in their children's education when they find themseleves stressed every morning?

A survey of more than 2,000 moms and dads about their morning routines show what the morning hustle is really like. The results were surprising:

  • 84% of parents make resolutions for the academic year ahead.
  • 63% of parents break those resolutions, citing lack of energy to keep up.
  • The biggest challenge parents face in the morning? Getting kids out the door on time.
  • Many parents do personal grooming on their way to work because of lack of time in the morning. Forty-three percent of women put on their makeup during the morning commute and 52% of men shave!
  • Parents need to remind their kids at least twice in the morning to get dressed, brush their teeth, or put on their shoes.
  • By the end of the school year, parents will have asked their kids to hurry up almost 540 times.
  • In an average school week, kids spill on their clothes twice while getting ready for the day ahead.
  • More than half of parents resort to bribing their children to keep resolutions on track, offering time with electronics (39%), a new toy or game (38%) or extra time watching TV (33%) as a reward.
  • On average, parents skip around two breakfasts a week because their children make them late, though eight in 10 parents think breakfast is the most important meal of the day.

"We know that when families are engaged in their children’s learning, students succeed. Yet educators often need support in helping families integrate into local school communities, where they can learn about the education practices and policies that impact their children," says the Carnegie Corporation of New York, which has produced a resource center to place families at the center of any approach to student success. 

The survey from August 2018 was conducted by  Kellogg's Nutri-Grain.