Majority of Parents Say Getting Kids and Family Ready (94%), Making Sure They Eat Breakfast (93%), Making Nutritious Breakfast (82%) Are Top Morning Priorities
Eating a healthy breakfast is also extremely important as eight in ten (82%) believe making sure that breakfast is nutritious is also a high priority. When it comes to parents, Moms are more likely than Dads to say that getting family ready (97% to 89%), making sure they eat breakfast (97% to 86%), and making sure breakfast is nutritious (87% to 72%) are top priorities.
When it comes to themselves, however, parents own needs take less priority and Moms are more likely than Dads to let their own needs slide. Only half say that getting themselves ready (52%) and making sure they eat breakfast (50%) are high morning priorities. A minority of Moms believe getting themselves ready (45%) and making sure they eat breakfast (48%) is high priority, compared to a majority of Dads (65%/53%) who believe their own needs are priority. Less than two in ten believe other activities like doing work and checking emails (15%) or working out (12%) constitute high priorities in the morning. Nine in ten actually considered working out (88%) and doing work (85%) as low priorities compared to taking care of others in the house. Two in ten Dads say that doing work/emails (18%) and working out (17%) is a high priority compared to only one in ten Moms (13%/9%) who place a high priority on these activities.
The Morning Routine
Making sure all household members have eaten breakfast and are out the door on time can take its toll though. Six in ten (55%) parents `agree' (13% strongly/42% somewhat) that the morning is the most stressful time of the day with their family, compared to just under half (45%) who `disagree' (13% strongly/33% somewhat). Majority (51%) `agree' (11% strongly/40% somewhat) that morning in their household are a chaotic time, while slightly under half (49%) `disagree' (12% strongly/37% somewhat) that their households have chaotic mornings. Even though Moms are more likely to say they spend more time helping others get ready, Dads (57%) are more likely to `agree' that mornings are stressful than Moms (53%), although Moms (52%) more so `agree' than Dads (49%a) that mornings are chaotic time.
For others, it's about getting their family into a successful routine to prevent stressful starts to their day, but this is easier said than done. Nearly half of parents (47%) `agree' (13% strongly/35% somewhat) that their family is not a well-oiled machine, compared to just over half (53%) that do. Six in ten (56%) Dads `agree' with this sentiment compared to just over half (51%) of Moms.
For many, this chaos stems from having to get everyone else ready and leaving little time for themselves. Two-thirds (64%) `agree' (26% strongly/38% somewhat) that they `spend most of their mornings getting other people ready and out the door rather than getting myself ready'. Just over one-third (36%), however, `disagree' (9% strongly/27% somewhat) that they spend most of their mornings focused on others. Seven in ten (70%) Moms `agree' that they spend most of their mornings getting others ready compared to just over half (51%) of Dads who `agree'.
Time is always of the essence for rushing parents in the morning. A slight majority (51%) `agree' (12% strongly/39% somewhat) that they `never feel they have enough time to do what they need to do to get everyone off to a good start for the day'. The remainder (49%) of parents `disagree' (12% strongly/37% somewhat) and believe they do have enough time get a good start for everyone. Moms (51%) and Dads (50%) were equally likely to `agree' that they don't have enough time.
Some parents, though, do all they can to prevent these stressful mornings from making them feel this way. More than three-quarters (78%) of parents `agree' (30% strongly/48% somewhat) that they `try to take steps in the evening to make their mornings go smoother', while less than one-quarter (22%) `disagree' (4% strongly/18% somewhat) that they take pre-emptive action. More Dads (81%) `agree' that they take evening steps for smoother mornings than Moms (76%).
Morning Time Allocation
With such a hectic morning, it takes parents an average of 77 minutes from the time they wake in the morning until they get out the door and according to their top priorities, most of this 77 minutes is spent getting others ready and then, if time, themselves. Moms (81 min) tend to take a bit more time than Dads (70 min) when it comes to finally getting out the door. Some parents, however, take longer to get out the door. Two in ten (15%) take between an hour and a half to two hours before they finally leave the house, while 5% take more than two hours. Almost one-quarter of Moms (23%) take more than an hour and a half to leave the house, compared to two in ten (15%) Dads. Moms (6%) slightly edge Dads (4%) when it comes to taking more than two hours to finally leave the house.
On average, parents say that 62% of this time is spent getting their kids ready in the morning. Parents, however, spend less than half the time they spend on their kids on themselves in the morning. Parents are averaging half their time (31.5% of morning time) spent on getting kids and family on getting themselves ready. Not surprisingly, spouse and partners get the least attention in getting ready in the morning. Spouses and partners get less than 20% (18%) of their mates morning time, compared to one-quarter (23%) of a parent's morning time going towards `other' duties.
Dad's (42%) tend to spend more of their morning time on getting themselves ready compared to Moms (26%). Moms (64%), on the other hand, spend more of their morning time getting their kids ready than Dads (56%). Finally, Dad's say they spend more of their time in the morning getting their spouses ready (23% to 17% for Moms) and "other" getting-ready tasks (25% to 22% for Moms).
Challenges to a Nutritious Breakfast
The morning rush can often cause many duties to be missed or forgotten. Four in ten (41%) parents say that leaving the house a `makes them feel guilty in the morning'. Three in ten (31%) believe not spending time with their kids causes guilty feelings. One-quarter of parents say that being so rushed that their family doesn't always have a nutritious breakfast (26%) and/or skipping breakfast altogether (24%) makes them feel guilty in the mornings. Of the options provided, Moms were more likely to feel guilty than Dads for all categories with the exception of feeling guilty for `not spending enough time with my spouse' (23% to 14%).
While one-quarter feel guilty for skipping breakfast, most go out of their way to make breakfast a priority. Four in ten (43%) say that all family members eat breakfast each day and none skip breakfast during mornings of work/school weeks. Less than two in ten (18%) say that at least one family member skips breakfast every morning of a school or work week. Moms and Dads showed no discernible difference when it came to their family skipping breakfast.
Making sure to eat breakfast everyone morning is only half the battle for parents as they want to provide a nutritious meal to keep their family energized throughout the day. Four in ten (40%) say that time and being too busy rushing out the door to prepare something `is the biggest challenge in preventing their family from eating a nutritious breakfast in the morning'. Other major challenges preventing a nutritious breakfast are parents finding something nutritious that their kids will eat (28%), convenience (16%), it's expensive (14%), taste (9%), it's just not a priority (5%), and it's too hard to know what's nutritious (4%). Four in ten (36%), however, say their family has no challenges in eating a nutritious breakfast in the morning.
Moms and Dads tend to differ slightly on challenges to a nutritious breakfast. Nearly half of Dads (45%) say that time and having to rush out the door is one of the biggest challenges, compared to four in ten Moms (38%). Moms (32%) are more likely to see finding something that their children will eat as challenge than Dads (19%). Two in ten Moms say that convenience (18%) and expensive costs (16%) are other challenges to providing a nutritious, compared to only one in ten Dads see convenience (12%) and expensive costs (9%) as challenges.
These are some of the findings of an Ipsos Reid poll conducted between June 28th to July 9th, 2012, on behalf of Breakfast Cereals Canada. For this survey, a sample of 811 Canadian parents with at least 2 children under the age of 12 were interviewed from Ipsos' Canadian online panel. Weighting was then employed to balance demographics to ensure that the sample's composition reflects that of the adult population according to Census data and to provide results intended to approximate the sample universe. A survey with an unweighted probability sample of this size and a 100% response rate would have an estimated margin of error of +/- 3.5 percentage points, 19 times out of 20, of what the results would have been had the entire population of Canadian parents with at least 2 children under the age of 12 had been polled. All sample surveys and polls may be subject to other sources of error, including, but not limited to coverage error, and measurement error.
For more information on this news release, please contact:
Sean Simpson
Associate Vice President
Ipsos Reid Public Affairs
416.572.4474
[email protected]
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