Who cares what you think about getting back to school? No, that’s not the question we keep asking our kids this time of year. It’s a question that’s answered by the marketing people at DDB Worldwide. The advertising agency has just released a new Life Style Study, because that’s what advertising agencies need to study. The results have some pretty interesting facts and figures for how mothers and fathers look at the back-to-school season. Specifically, on the differences on how mothers and fathers look at the back-to-school season.
We’re not looking at major differences, but we’re certainly wondering about how some people responded to the survey. It’s based on people answering questions or commenting on statements. Consider this one: “When back-to-school time rolls around, I’m happy to get the household back on a routine/fixed schedule.” That statement has 75% of Moms agreeing, paired with 77% of the Dads. We’d like to meet the 25% of the moms who thrive on getting away from routine. We do at the start of summer, of course, but are definitely pining for some routing by the Labor Day weekend.
This response on the survey complicates things, too: “When back-to-school time rolls around, I’m as bummed as the kids are because the schedule makes life harder in our house.” There’s only 25% of the Moms agreeing with that, and only 23% of the Dads.
Here’s a statement with a more dramatic difference: “If it were an option for your kids to attend school for more months of the year, would you want that?” We’re a little surprised that only 42% of the Moms would want their children attending school for more months of the year. In contrast, 52% of the Dads are cool with a longer school year. Now we feel like bad mothers for being in the 48%. But in our defense, we are at the end of August. Maybe we would’ve answered that differently in September.
When it comes to adding hours to the school day, 37% of Moms approve, as opposed to 51% of approving Dads. That’s a major difference. And we definitely think we’re seeing something important with this statement: “If your kids could have a longer school day instead of being assigned homework, would you want that?” 49% of Moms say yes, while 53% of Dads agree. That means about half of us are tired of struggling over our children’s homework. Some of that gets really tough.
On a more touching note, there’s this: “When the kids are out of school for the summer, I’m glad to have them around.” That statement has 81% of the Moms agreeeing, and 86% of the Dads. Compare that to the statement of “When the kids are out of school for the summer, I’m counting the days before they go back to school.” There’s a slightly bigger gap between mothers and fathers there. 19% of the Moms agree, while only 14% of the Dads want the schools back open.
So what does it all mean? Here’s a suggestion from Denise Delahorne, the Group Strategy Director of DDB US: “Moms appear to have a greater appreciation and understanding of how stressful school can be for their kids. This might be in part attributable to the fact that they are more likely to be the ones who first hear the responses their children offer to the question, ‘How was school today?'”
And we can’t argue with that, except to add that mothers are just more appreciative and understanding in general. But we don’t need a survey to tell us that
