If your kids aren’t back at school already, they will be soon! We’ll be checking how you feel about this next week, but for now we look back on the summer, look ahead to the new term and take a peek at parenting styles.
The end of the summer hols (and the Summer ☀️ Survey)
Summer can have a strange effect on time… the school holidays simultaneously feel like they last forever and are gone in a flash. But how long are they, really?
For most of you (55%) the summer holidays lasted the standard 6 weeks, but for 18% they lasted 7 weeks and for a lucky/unlucky [delete as appropriate] 6% they lasted 8 weeks or more.
Are the summer holidays too long? Around a quarter of you think they are! But on the whole, most of you think they are just right.
How much have the summer hols cost you? 58% of you with a primary-school child and 81% of you with a secondary-school child haven’t had to pay anything for childcare over the summer. BUT 10% of primary parents report spending over £400 across the holidays. There is dramatic variation by region, with nearly a quarter of London parents doling out £400+, compared to fewer than 1 in 10 in most other areas.
The return to school (and COVID?)
Whilst the return to school looks set to be smoother than last year, it is not without its COVID challenges. We checked on how clear you are on the COVID safety measures in place, and there is a lot less clarity compared to last year.
This may be due to fewer precautions being mandated by government this year, so we thought we’d check on the details…
Masks 
23% of you say your child will wear a mask at secondary school because the school have asked, and a further 15% will do so despite it not being mandated.
Isolating 
55% of you will not send your child to school if someone in the household tests positive for COVID. This is despite the government saying it’s ok to do so.
Vaccine 
56% of you are happy for your kids to have the jab as soon as it is offered (a figure that has been consistent throughout 2021). BUT – and this is important for government messaging – your main reason is to protect your kids (61%) rather than to protect others (29%).
Covid tests 
74% of you will do regular COVID tests on your children, but this is mostly the older kids. Only 20% of you with children in primary school will be doing regular tests (perhaps as you do not have as easy access to lateral flow tests). 29% of parents of primary-aged children do not plan to test at all
And also… Strictly parenting
We asked you to imagine parenting on a spectrum from very permissive to very strict. Whilst most of you unsurprisingly placed yourself in the middle of the scale, we did spot an interesting pattern of more dads than mums saying that they are permissive.
This was corroborated when we checked if you parent alongside someone else, are they more permissive or more strict than you? 53% dads say that the mums are stricter than them!
Coming up next week
We have a great set of back-to-school questions planned for you, plus parent guilt 😳 Download the app and set your notifications to PING every day!