The Challenges of Parenting in Back-to-School 2020
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Nearly half of American parents expect to be their own child’s teacher in 2020, maybe longer, which is a source of great anxiety. A point-by-point breakdown of what parents are facing in the short term, and what brands are already doing to help parents manage this great shift.
Once the calendar flips to August, excitement tends to fill the air over school reopening. That typically means a return to “routine,” but this year, that’s hardly the case.
“Students don’t know when they’re going to be able to be in their classrooms with their friends; teachers don’t know if they should be preparing for a full year remotely, or a partial year,” said Matt Britton, founder and CEO of Suzy, during a recent webinar, “State of the Consumer: Preparing for an Uncertain School Year.”
Such implications are having an outsized impact on parenting, something Suzy examined on August 11 when the company surveyed 1,000 parents and 500 school teachers and administrative personnel about Back-To-School 2020. The resulting data revealed a series of ways parents are and will continue to be affected by this most unordinary school year. Here are a few:
They’re adopting new roles
With restaurants, as well as movie theaters and other public spaces closed, many parents have assumed the roles of cook and entertainer. If they’re responsible about social distancing, they’ve become their child’s babysitter, too.
But 47% of parents also told Suzy they expect to be their child’s teacher this year, topping the list of new roles parents are taking on, outranking that of cook, entertainer, and babysitter by 8%, 17%, and 20%, respectively. About 40% of the parents said their biggest challenge during the pandemic has been balancing all the responsibilities.
“This is completely new territory for parents,” Britton said. “It’s just so much to juggle for parents in terms of the things they’re thinking of, because during a normal school day, they wouldn’t be any of these things.”
They’re planning a full day with their kids
Suzy found that 43% of parents have “drastically” changed their schedule in order to accommodate school closings. But the data also showed that 73% of parents are still trying to maintain their pre-COVID schedules.
To reconcile this disparity, some parents have taken to Trello, the project-management platform popular in corporate settings, to help them plot out their day.
“Parents are now looking at their home almost like a functioning company in terms of the tools and the processes they need to be able to execute properly for the back-to-school season,” Britton observed.
They’re facing new health concerns
More than half (55%) of polled parents said they’re concerned about their child returning to school, regardless of their age, and understandably so. Britton highlighted headlines chronicling a number of schools that have shut down after reopening due to COVID-19 cases turning up.
But physical health is not the only concern among parents; there are also developmental ramifications to school closings and remote learning. When asked what they’re most nervous about, parents told Suzy, among other things, that they’re worried about potential school closings’ impact on their children’s socialization.
In the same Suzy survey, 49% of parents also said they wish there was more brand-developed content as an incentive to keep kids more productive.
“Most parents actually don’t have the ability to come up instantly with these new, creative ways to keep their kids busy,” Britton, a parent himself, said. “It’s not that they don’t want to spend money on products, they’re just looking for things and ideas.”
Joining Britton in the webinar was Rick Stringer, VP of the Crayola Customer Leadership Center, which analyzes consumer data to optimize customer experience and company growth. Stringer said in response to the pandemic and the consumer’s evolving needs, Crayola has been developing content by “monitoring, listening” to its customers, “just to understand how our products are being used, and to ensure we catch some [trends] early.”
“That’s been a big factor this year especially,” he added.
“Content should have really evolved through this crisis from being a ‘nice-to-have’ to really being a ‘must-have,’” said Britton. “It’s not really playing the role as advertising anymore. It’s actually to activate the purpose of the brand and the product in the home, because parents are facing a whole new normal and don’t know how to act and live in these times.”
For much more information and results from the Suzy research, you can view the entire webinar, “State of the Consumer: Preparing for an Uncertain School Year” at Suzy.com.