Many of us face the struggle of getting our kids up, ready, out the house and to school on time and it is a time of the day when frustrations run high and patience and understanding it at an all time low - it is really no surprise that confrontation with other parents is a regular occurrence.

The school run is widely regarded by many parents to be one of the most stressful events of the daily routine, and a new survey shows that over a third of those who take their kids to school will face a confrontation.

A new survey conducted by Privilege car insurance* shows that 37% - which was over a third of those who took part in the survey - had a confrontation or a disagreement with another parent during the school run.

For some parents their school run experience was even worse as one in ten - which was about 9% of those who took the survey - had had a physical confrontation whilst delivering their children to the school's front door; a stat that I actually found quite shocking.

While the survey aimed to uncover the levels of confrontation that are happening during the school run, the survey also wanted to see what the main cause of frustration was amongst parents who do take their kids to school in the car.

A massive 65% of parents who regularly drop their child off at school revealed that it was the lack of parking spaces in and around the school, which was the major cause of frustration during the school run.

While lack of parking spaces was the most common cause of frustrations for the nation's parents, 50% also said that too much traffic around the school was another cause, while 49% blamed their short fuse on the other parent's carelessness when it came to driving and parking.

Other main causes of frustration were children who live close by are driven to school when they could walk (31%), parents who drive huge 4X4 vehicles in an urban area (23%) and careless pedestrians who ignore the rules of the road (22%)

It also seems that our own children are a major distraction to parents during the school run, as 30% said that loud and disruptive children also made the school run ever more difficult.

Furthermore, parents are now spending an average of three and half days every year picking up or dropping off their children at school, totalling 24.5 days over the duration of a child's time a primary school**.

London-based families have also been revealed to drive the most miles on the school run, with nearly a quarter (22 per cent) driving between 15 - 20 miles per day for their kids' education.

The school run is something that does seem to have been a growing issue in recent years - particularly for schools that are in the middle of our busy towns and cities - with the rise in traffic and the number or vehicles that are around our schools in the morning and afternoon.

For those who do live close enough to school, walking your children to school is always a better option as it gives yourself and your child that extra bit of exercise - plus do you don't have any parking to worry about.

For parents who have no option but to drive their child to school, confrontation could be kept to a minimum by parking a little further away from the school and walking the rest of the way.

* Research conducted among 1,002 UK parents of children aged 4 to 11 that drive from 22nd to 29th September 2014

** Length of school year taken from National Archive equals 190 days. British parents on the school run spend nearly half an hour (28 minutes) every weekday taking or picking up their children from school, equalling 5320minutes per year or 3.5 days per year. This figure has then been multiplied by 7 which is the duration of primary school years.


by for www.femalefirst.co.uk
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