A recent survey indicates a significant proportion of parents, particularly mothers, experience a perceived conflict between their professional lives and their children’s educational development. The study, conducted in June 2025 by YouGov amongst 1,053 parents aged between 40 and 55 and reported by Redaktionsnetzwerk Deutschland, reveals that approximately half of all mothers feel compelled to choose between career and child’s schooling.
The research highlights an uneven distribution of perceived responsibility for academic matters, with 47 percent of respondents identifying mothers as primarily responsible, compared to just 8 percent citing fathers. This disparity is pronounced by gender; 67 percent of mothers feel personally responsible for their child’s academic progress. In contrast, 52 percent of fathers believe both parents share equal responsibility in this domain.
The survey further indicates that 58 percent of women who perceive a conflict between work and school experience this feeling frequently. This compares to only 3 percent of men reporting similar frequent feelings. A substantial majority of all parents (82 percent) report thinking about their child’s schooling at least several times a week, with mothers more likely to dwell on these thoughts daily or multiple times a day (53 percent) compared to fathers (41 percent).
Approximately 39 percent of those surveyed utilize external support, such as tutoring, for their children, with 42 percent of this group reporting that such assistance provides a sense of relief. The Studienkreis, which commissioned the research, suggests that societal expectations often frame a child’s academic success as primarily the mother’s responsibility, potentially contributing to these feelings of pressure and the need for external support.
