Breakfast clubs 'lifeline' for working parents

A survey by breakfast club provider Kellogg’s has found that more than a quarter (27 per cent) of working parents believe that without access to a breakfast club they or their partner would need to give up work.

Parents were also aware that the cost of alternative childcare would be much higher, with almost one in five respondents with more than one child in breakfast club, claiming that it saved them around £50 a week.

The Parent’s Lifeline report looks at the role that breakfast clubs play in the lives of working families and how changes to society are affecting family breakfast times.

According to Kellogg’s, 38 per cent of children attend a breakfast club, with more than a quarter of parents of the belief that children’s learning benefits from the extra time in breakfast clubs.

Breakfast clubs also enable parents to start work earlier in some cases, the report says, for a ‘more productive working day’.

Leanne Gardner, a mother of two boys, said, ‘The breakfast club means that I can work from 8.30am until 4.30pm, allowing me 2.5 hours of quality time to spend in the evenings with the boys.

‘Without breakfast club, I wouldn’t be able to get to work until 9.30am, which would mean that I wouldn’t get home until 6pm, allowing me just 30-60 minutes with my sons. And I’d have to pay for after-school childcare on top.’

The report also highlights how eating breakfast together at home has become difficult for many families.

More than a third (37 per cent) of working parents surveyed said they rarely or never eat breakfast with their children during the week.

Just one in five (22 per cent) working parents manages to sit down and eat breakfast with their children every day.

Around half of parents recognise the importance of their child eating a good breakfast before heading off to school, but breakfast is rushed for a third of children (36 per cent) who spend just ten minutes eating breakfast.

The report also found that children spend time before school using iPads, watching TV or videos on YouTube, often because such distractions allow parents time to get ready for work.