A survey done by OnePoll on behalf of Amazon Devices gathered 2000 American parents of school-going children and asked about how they felt about children going back to school. The researchers found that most parents couldn’t wait for their children to go back to school. However, parents dread going back to a fixed routine after the flexible schedules from virtual learning.

Parents dread going back to their pre-pandemic morning routine

Researchers found that the families (63%) did not have a morning routine during the coronavirus pandemic. However, 81% want their kids to go back to school even though they must adjust their morning routine.

Despite their willingness to have their children go back to school, about 58% of the parents admitted that weekday mornings were a stressful part of their day before the pandemic. The stress was caused by making sure their children are dressed (25%), preparing breakfast (33%),  getting out of bed (39%) and getting their children out of bed (42%).

About 59% of the respondents said they had difficulty getting their children to wake up in the morning. Most of them (87%) set more than two alarms to wake everyone up. The parents tried a few things to get their children to wake up, with 29% of them sending a pet into their room, another 29% playing music, about 33% opening their curtains, 39% setting loud alarms and 46% turning on the lights in their children’s bedrooms.

The researchers discovered that 3 in 4 participants had become excited by virtual learning but soon became tired. About 72% of the children thought of virtual learning as a summer vacation.

Parents faced challenges in their morning routine

Most of the parents (84%) were happy to have their children learning from home because they would spend time together. However, 68% said that virtual learning became more complicated with time.

About 60% of parents admitted to having a hard time balancing their morning routine with their children’s, with 57% getting to work late because they needed to get them ready for school. About 32% said they would watch morning television if they had more time. Another 32% said they would sleep in, 32% said they would exercise, and 33% meditate.

Challenges the respondents ran into with their children included them forgetting their homework (31%), backpack (29%).