It's true what they say — a parent's job is never done.
Mornings, afternoon, and evenings. Parenting is a 24/7, full time gig, so when you really think about it, it's amazing that many are able to do all that and maintain jobs of their own.
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Getting Kids Ready In The Morning Is Equivalent To An Extra Workday For Parents
Ask any working parent and they'll tell you that morning routines are the absolute worst.
Unsplash | Dane Deaner
Not only do they have to get their kid(s) up, dressed, washed, fed, teeth brushed, hair combed, and lunches packed, but hey also have to do all this for themselves. It's like doing your own morning routine twice, three times, sometimes four times over, depending on the size of your brood.
A recent survey of parents found that all the time spent herding children out the door in the morning really adds up.
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According to Scary Mommy, those hours can actually total to an entire extra workday every week for parents. So in addition to putting in their usual work hours, they're also taking on another entire day's worth of work, just getting their kids ready in the morning.
The survey was conducted by Kellogs, the company behind your favorite cereal and granola bar products.
They surveyed 2,000 parents about their morning routines and found that most parents actually don't have enough time in the morning to complete their own routine after readying their children.
Forty-three percent of women said they have to apply their makeup in the car, while 52 percent of men say this is when they get to shave.
Overall, the average parents puts in an extra 10 hours worth of work per week just getting their kids ready for the day.
Unsplash | Dylan Gillis
10 hours, people. That's more than your average workday. That means these parents are basically working an extra regular shift plus overtime every week.
And they don't even get paid.
By the end of the school year, parents will have asked their kids to hurry up about 540 times.
Which sounds about right when I think about my own experience as a kid with my mom trying to get me and my siblings out the door every morning.
At some point "please hurry up" started to sound like her catchphrase.
In total, the number of average tasks a parent completes each morning is 43.
Unsplash | Kyle Glenn
This includes things like unloading the dishwasher, packing school lunches, signing permission slips, taking dinner out to thaw, tying shoes, etc.
In order to be able to complete all those 43 tasks, researchers found the average parent needs to get up and get their kids moving by 6 am.
Kellogs' Vice President of Marketing, U.S. Snacks, Jeremy Harper, said the survey was meant to highlight real mornings for real parents.
Unsplash | Sue Zeng
“We wanted to shed light on what real mornings are like for parents before their kids go off to school,” he said.
Well, consider us enlightened. I have a new appreciation for my mom not just getting one kid ready for school every morning but four. Way to go, mom. You're the real MVP.
So what do we do with this information?
Well, if you're a childless adult like me, you hold your parents a little tighter and you thank them for putting up with your morning antics for 18 years.
If you're a parent, I guess you can try and optimize your mornings better to make things a little easier for yourself. But who are we kidding? It's just a blessing you're ever able to make it to work on time.
h/t: Scary Mommy
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