Talk to Allianz about school run stress and you could win a £250 John Lewis voucher NOW CLOSED

[AngelieMumsnet]

The team at Allianz would like to hear about Mumsnetters' experiences with school run stress,

Here's what Allianz have to say: "The school run is an important component of every day family life and we are keen to help families across the UK make the process as enjoyable as possible."

So, which factors cause the highest stress levels on the school run? Maybe it starts with getting everyone out of bed on time? Or perhaps it's getting everyone out of the house on time?
Do you have any tips for making the school run a smoother and less stressful experience? If a stressful school run is unavoidable, how does it affect the rest of your day?

Whatever your experiences of school run stress, Allianz would love to hear about it.

Everyone who posts on this thread will be entered into a prize draw where one winner will receive a £250 John Lewis voucher.

Please note your comments may be included on Allianz's social media channels, and possibly elsewhere, so please only post if you're comfortable with this.

Thanks and good luck,
MNHQ

I feel like the nursery run is good preparation for things to come. My DH mainly does the drop off and pick up so I help out by getting DS dressed.

Nursery is actually easier than school as he gets fed breakfast there and we don't have to arrive punctually but obviously we need to get ourselves to work on time so that's the main pressure to get us out of the house.

The fact that I'm already thinking about school runs and I don't even have to for another 2 years worries me a little!

I feel like the nursery run is good preparation for things to come. My DH mainly does the drop off and pick up so I help out by getting DS dressed.

Nursery is actually easier than school as he gets fed breakfast there and we don't have to arrive punctually but obviously we need to get ourselves to work on time so that's the main pressure to get us out of the house.

The fact that I'm already thinking about school runs and I don't even have to for another 2 years worries me a little!

So, which factors cause the highest stress levels on the school run?

The worst thing is DCs who need micromanging sock by sock. In some ways it's easier with very young DC who you accept will need constant supervision. Much more stressful are the 9 year olds who you've trustingly left to get dressed while you clean up the cats' vomit or whatever, and who are found twenty minutes later wearing only a pair of pants on backwards having been distracted by a brilliant idea for a Lego tank.

Do you have any tips for making the school run a smoother and less stressful experience?

Like Chippy, my top tip is to make sure your work schedule takes you out of the house long before the DCs - DH is much better at it than me, because I get distracted by MNing unloading the dishwasher.

Oh yes, avoiding the school run is a major upside of any day when I have to leave early. Stepping out alone into a peaceful dawn, leaving fast asleep DC for DH to deal with [contented sigh]

keep them organised.and often involved.make getting dressed a game a race if thewre is more than one of them.
have the uniform all ready the night before can be really helpful.and the girls sometimes like laying there uniform out for the day.and its a way to incorporate chat the night before asking them what subjects theyve got what they are looking forward to.
the faff u feel ur doing the night before always feels better when there is less stress in the morning.
getting them too into a routine is really helpful so persist if you can
if they are a struggle at breakfast one thing ive found really helpfu lis having a mat of their choice.we went and picked these mats and they now lay them out the night before with a spoon and stuff and we all guess what the other will be in the moodd for breakfast wise the next day.

also sleep.they need their sleep and you can really tell when they have had it.
and breakfast try your best to give them something good.if its kidds cereal dont panic,the 'sugar' in them never did us any harm when we had them as kids so my own will have them too.

To be honest I don't find it too difficult. I live next to the school which really helps. On the odd occasion I forget something we can do a round trip in 5 minutes. The only thing that is stressful is watching the clock so I am not too early and then getting them out the house when they are engrossed in whatever they are doing. I must say put your shoes on 5 times, gradually getting louder until occasionally I am shouting. Which I try not to do as it never actually helps.

Biggest school run stress is trying to get 2 young ones out of the house on time and then me to work. The younger one goes to nursery and needs driving there. Older one can be walked to school by dh.

I cope by getting up earlier than normal so usually 6.15 so that I have time and peace and quiet to myself to think, look quickly at work emails, Facebook, mn, read the news on the bbc app, load the washing machine and make lunch.

Then I go upstairs, get dressed and made up and then wake kids up. It works.

On days if say they wake earlier it really upsets me as I don't have my peace and quiet!!

I tend to have a routine that I stick to every morning and try to keep this up most days and do things at the same time every single day. Of course one thing to throw this off has me tearing round the house in a panic. I get my DS's and my clothes ready the night before, this really helps.

The only real stress I have is making sure I get to work on time once i've done the school run, I am quite often at my desk on time by the skin of my teeth.

The afternoon school run is much calmer, although the route to my DS's school is on a lane past a National Trust property and some farms so there is sometimes the odd hair raising moment with tractors and coaches!

We live 25 mins drive from school.

All my dcs have to dress in uniform and oldest two make their beds before coming down for breakfast.

They have breakfast and then clean their teeth, shoes and blazer.

NO TELLY or any kind of screen time at all.

Lots of scream time though when they can't find library book/homework diary/show and tell toy!

The main school run stress is our toddler age 3. Doesn't want to get dressed or some other tantrum can delay us easily. Things are made easier using the double buggy. I drive and have a car but we live too close for it to be worth driving. School does not have a car park anyway. I try to avoid thinking about the school run, it just stresses me out more!

We are only doing the preschool run.
Our tips are packing bags the night before, bathing the night before and getting up on time.

I have changed my mind. Day Two and I am broken. My suggestion for a stress dree scgy run is to win the lottery and get a full time nanny. Until that happens practice your best I-am-not-phased-by-my-child's-behaviour face.

I get up at 6:30 so we can try and leave the house by 8:20. I can't afford to run late because I start work at 9:30.

My top stress points are; trying to stop the DC's fighting in the morning and to get them in their uniforms by 8am. And we only have one bathroom which causes problems for my IBS. Two toilets would make the mornings far easier.

Top tips are; I get everything out the night before, my work stuff (even my undies) and the dc's uniforms. Bags all sorted, water bottles clean and ready to be filled in the kitchen. And a quick check on what we're having for breakfast, I've been known to get bowls and cups all ready and on the side the evening before.

The greatest stress comes from lateness or from things being forgotten or not organised the night before. Simple things like having a really rigid routine that everyone understands help. We eat the same breakfast, shoes are left in the right place, coats are hung up in the same place, getting up times are set in stone etc. Teenagers really push the boundaries with the routine and want to do their own thing but we have a system whereby if they are not down and ready by a certain time, then they have to have their light out very much earlier at night to combat them being too "tired" to make it down on time. I find a stressful morning makes me grumpy and difficult and, as a teacher, I can't really take this into work with me.

Do as much as possible the night before is my mantra.

You can plan and plan but it's often such a short window of time that the unexpected things can really derail you. Things like a five year old boy who has lost the stick he left by the front door last night or a toddler who won't go in her pushchair without wailing like I'm cutting her limbs off to get her in.

Oh the joys of parenthood!

if only someone could find a cure for autism things would be a lot easier...

failing that, perhaps someone could invent weetbisk type cereal that can get to the right consistencey of wetness and no further.

strategies: 1 not putting the milk on until he is up and awake. handing him the bowl into his hand. apparently putting it a foot away from him is not sufficient and result in over soggification of weetbisks. this was learned the hard way this morning.

1. having the right colour cup washed and available.
2. never using a yellow or orangy bowl. green can be suspect.
3. hope that the UV index is low and therefore one does not need to torture him with sunscreen. thanks to the met office website we have a rule of yellow traingle =sunscreeen.
4. feed him lots of omega three containing food, and plenty of b vitamins.
5. get most of the components of the lunch ready in the fridge the night before. wash the little containers and put away with lids.
6. invent a zapper to turn red traffic lights green.
7. go to bed on time and stop mning til silly o'clock.
8. vest wearing is permissible if feels like temperature on the met office website is below 22.

10. have lots of vests available. they can get flung and lost. 11. bribe the sitemanager with chocolate to keep the gate open if he sees you running up the road after mega meltdown days.

Enjoyable?! are you having a laugh! at best its bearable, at worst its torture.

my main issues are:

1. last minute poos as you have to leave the house that second or be late
2. parking, or lack thereof
3. everyone else in cars, on the school run
4. Particularly retired people and white van drivers that drive excessively slowly/badly/fast and don't even really need to be there for those 20 mins a day - have a cup of tea before setting off!

I think one of the hardest parts of the school run is dragging younger sibling(s) along. If DD2 isn't ready and I don't have to go on to work, I have been known to just take her in her pyjamas eating an apple or drinking some milk in the buggy. Then I take her home and finish getting her fed, dressed, brushed etc. Just knowing on non-work days that I only have to get one ready makes it so much easier!
Of course, on work days there's no choice but to get both ready by 0730 I keep my sanity by splitting responsibility for drops with DH (I do all the pickups). So that's the other tip really. Split what you possibly can!

The main stress is trying to get out the house and the realising in holding the baby I can't get the buggy up! Not school run stress, but nursery stress! I invariably also forget to pick up my daughter's bag and have to go back for it. It shoudln't be so hard to get out the door!

I am not sure why, but for some reason the school run is infinitely more stressful than early-years childcare morning drop-offs (nursery or childminder), despite being about an hour later!

My toppest top tip is to get someone else to be responsible for it (thanks DH!) I get the end-of-day leaving work will-the-trains-be-ok stress, but by and large avoid the morning school run at the moment, except for one day a week. I feel I've earned my stripes in the past though!

Our school is non-uniform, so it is COMPLETELY VITAL to get the kids to lay out their clothes the night before - any disagreements about appropriate-ness can be dealt with then, and the next morning you can just go "but you chose them" (followed with "if you don't like what you chose last night you can wear this [awful item of your choosing!]")

We like to get the kids totally up, breakfasted, dressed, teeth and hair done and then let them play while the adult gets washed and dressed. But strictly no TV or screens on school day mornings!

We could definitely be better at the bags packed and stuff organised the night before, though. Many's the time we've been scrabbling for the cheque book and pen/permission slip/show n tell item at the wrong side of 8:30…

A bad school run where you're chivvying them and constantly nagging/shouting is awful. Makes you feel like a terrible parent - mostly because no matter how annoying the kids have been, at the end of the day it is our responsibility as a parent to make the mornings work better. So it feels like a bad failure, and you know you can do better. And when you leave early, walk along unhurriedly and have an interesting chat it sets you up for the day.

I used to have to get four children to four different school sites by 8:55 through city traffic - now that was stressful! Now it's just two schools, but I can still feel like I've done a day's work by 9am.

Walking means we need to leave earlier but actually the exercise seems to distract and energise everyone in a good way.

On good days all the uniform was put out the night before, lunches were frozen at the beginning of the week, and everyone is happy to get up when their alarm goes off. Great days are when no one does anything that might irritate a sibling - eating cereal too loudly, taking the last bit of toast, or blocking them going up the stairs by doing up their shoes sitting on the steps. Bad days, on the other hand...

I think my mood can set the tone for the school run: if I'm organised and calm enough not to react badly to any drama, we seem to get through much better.

My school run stress is partly down to The Simpsons, and partly down to my lack of motivation until I've had a coffee.

Which factors cause the highest stress levels on the school run? Usually DS having his head in the clouds and no concept of needing to hurry, ever. Also his amazing ability to cycle at slower than walking pace (because he's daydreaming...). Though occasionally it is DD fussing about what to wear!

Do you have any tips for making the school run a smoother and less stressful experience? Well everyone says this, but although we don't always manage, the thing about getting everything ready the night before is true, ditto having a proper place for everything and trying to keep it there. Also sometimes it helps to tell DS that if he gets ready quickly enough, he will get a few minutes' play or reading time without me nagging him at the end...

If a stressful school run is unavoidable, how does it affect the rest of your day? Mainly that feeling of having already done a full day's work by the time I get into the office! But also I hate having to get cross and shouty with the kids, but sometimes it seems unavoidable...