Almost 1/3 of parents say school emails are more stressful than their work inbox

Back-to-school time is hectic for parents, with shopping to do, new schedules to learn, and kids to get used to waking up in time to catch the bus every morning. But does the school year ever get less hectic? Not in your inbox, according to a new survey. Yahoo partnered with Censuswide to survey over 2,000 parents and caregivers of school-aged children across the U.S., and it revealed some surprising things about how many school emails we all receive—and how much it’s stressing us all out.

According to the survey, the average parent receives around four emails a day related to their children, their school, and extracurricular activities. For those (like me) who are bad at math, that comes out to around 20 emails a week, or over 80 a month.

Is that too much email? Well, most parents say yes—56% who participated in the survey, to be exact.

In fact, 29% of the parents who participated in the survey said that their personal email (ahem, school emails) is even more stressful than their work email. Over half (52%) said they feel overwhelmed by their personal email, and 49% said it adds to their mental load as a parent.

Because when you add all these school emails to the more than 2,000 unread messages the average parent already has in their inbox at any given time—according to the survey—you see why this is an issue. 

It’s causing details to slip through the cracks—62% of parents and caregivers said they’ve missed an important event or detail in their inbox. And that may be because 22% admitted they can never find the email they’re looking for. That’s a relatable struggle. 71% said they feel like bad parents when they miss important information about their children. And while parents and caregivers are stressing about email, 37% say all the time and effort they spend trying to keep up with it interferes with family time.

So what’s a parent to do? You may not be able to reduce the number of emails you get from your child’s school and extracurriculars, but you can cut down on email clutter in other ways: Unsubscribe from unnecessary newsletters or use a separate email address for school purposes, so it doesn’t get inundated with other messages. It may also help to schedule a set time to check and answer emails each day, so you don’t find yourself getting distracted by your inbox during quality family time.