How long do you spend getting ready for the school run?

So Googling ‘what to wear on the school run’ is a thing now. So, tell us, do you dress up to drop the kids off?

Are you a mum who grooms for the school gate? A recent survey reveals just how long the average mum spends getting ready to do the school run and you either will or won’t be amazed at the answer – 25 minutes. Have you become a school gate fashion victim?

So this (UK) survey says it’s 25 mins for them and seven minutes getting their children ready. On top of that, one of the top search terms on Google at this time of year is “school run fashion”, whole blogs are devoted to what to wear at drop-off and the stakes just keep getting higher as photos of celebrity mums looking effortlessly chic on the school run pop up from New York to London.

So, confession time. Do you get yourself glam for the school run? I must admit that I do. I would never leave the house without grooming myself properly. At the same time, I have nothing but admiration for the mums who clearly have not. I envy them. As I rush around the house madly selecting an outfit, blow-drying my hair and putting on make-up, they are sipping coffee, cuddling their children and not rushing at all.

I think the fact that they are brave to leave the house without grooming themselves suggests they have overcome some terrible social hurdle, which says something sad about me in itself. They don’t care what people think of how they look, but I do. Or, does it go deeper? Maybe my need to groom myself for the school run isn’t simply vanity. Maybe it’s about the kind of mother I want people to think I am.

When I see women who are groomed I make a series of assumptions. I assume they are organised, successful, good parents and the truth is I aspire to be all those things. In reality, the need to spend an average of 25 minutes grooming myself means I am less able to be organised and not as good a mother in the mornings. Or is it just that being well-groomed is not my natural state?

Those mothers who look effortlessly groomed…was it really effortless for them or did they race around the house madly selecting outfits and applying make-up like I did? Did they get their children dressed for school in a seven- minute whirlwind that left them feeling frazzled and their children a little startled?

I can only conclude that school gate fashion is a big deal, but only for some mothers. Others couldn’t care less.

I would love to set myself a challenge to turn up to the school gate with none of my usual grooming but sadly, I’m not brave enough. I judge people by their looks and therefore I feel I am judged by how I look. That is, until I get to know them better and discover that some mothers who are not groomed are happy, organised, successful and excellent mothers. So groomed mothers may not have their sh*t together after all.

Do you make an effort for the school run? Or are you happy to rock up with bed hair and trackie pants?