A recent study has found that parents count travelling with children among the most stressful car-based activities.
The research, which asked 2,000 UK drivers about stress-inducing motoring habits, concluded that driving kids on the school run ranked as the most stressful motoring scenario.
The results also revealed that three of the top four most stressful journeys involve driving with children and babies in the car.
Sitting at the very top of the stress list was the dreaded school run, but in third and fourth positions were ‘driving other people’s children’ and ‘driving a newborn home from hospital’, with ‘driving to the airport to make a flight’ the only journey to not involve children to make the top four.
A quarter of parents (25 per cent) admitted their nerves were at their worst driving with a new baby on board.
But protective parents also admitted that their top concern was other drivers causing an accident (37 per cent), closely followed by ensuring the baby was strapped in correctly (28 per cent).
Andy James, UK CEO at 1ST CENTRAL, the company responsible for the study, commented: “It is unsurprising that we feel stressed when carrying our most precious cargo.
“Our research shows that parents are not alone in feeling fraught when travelling with their children.
“We are working with Good Egg Safety to help shed some light on the subject and hope the tips will be useful to parents to help prevent stressful situations affecting their driving.”
These tips include ensuring the child seat fits both the car and child correctly, planning journeys so they fit in with naptime and factoring in regular breaks, particularly when transporting young babies.
By Leon Poultney
