Parents stress over money spent on school preparation: survey

Back to school can be an exciting time, but preparing children for the return to the classroom takes a lot of time – and money – from parents.

According to a new survey, mums and dads are increasingly worried about many aspects of the back-to-school season – from making sure school requirements are met, affecting 49% of parents, to safety concerns for 46% of parents .

However, cause no. No. 1 back-to-school stressor for 51% of parents is the cost of everything their kids need.

Parents estimate that they will spend an average of about $460 on school supplies. Additionally, they expect their children to lose about $175 of their belongings, including backpacks, pencil cases, calculators and textbooks – never to be seen again.

Parents spend an average of 17 hours a week just coordinating family schedules, according to results from a survey of 1,000 American parents with children ages 5 to 14.

That adds up to over two full days of work – and about $31,000 in lost man-hours per year.

The survey, conducted by Life360, found that between the time they spend away from work and the school supplies they have to buy, tens of thousands of dollars go into getting their kids ready to go back to school each year.

Furthermore, time is money, and in addition to time spent in trolley lines, commuting and driving to and from school and after-school extracurricular activities, figuring out these scheduling conflicts takes time itself.

“The back-to-school season can be a real challenge for parents. Balancing new schedules, calming kids’ back-to-school jitters and managing work can be overwhelming,” parenting expert Erika Katz, author of Coach Parenting, said in a press release.

Coordinating family schedules is difficult for 87% of parents, and most respondents believe there are four main planning challenges in the back-to-school season: fitting in time for all activities (57%), keeping up with every detail (54 %), finding work-life balance (52%) and managing last-minute changes (51%).

In fact, getting ready for school was ranked as the most stressful prep time of the year (44%) – and 29% of parents even said this time of year causes more anxiety than holidays, birthdays, standardized testing and sports. and performance preparation.

Most parents (68%) feel overwhelmed and burdened by how much they have to do every day. Even things that are considered simple daily routines, such as waiting in a pickup line — which averages about 16 minutes a day — become major stressors for parents.

The pressure causes 76% of parents to obsess over their children’s schedules and check on them several times a day.

The high-pressure situation has put many parents on the war bus, with many (60%) being moved to tears and 16% admitting to crying about it every year.

Perhaps this is why most (89%) start their preparation to go to school, actively thinking and planning for the school year, already in the spring.