76 Percent of Parents Say Their Kid Is Under Too Much Stress From School

Is too much homework stressing out our kids? Course Hero surveyed 2,000 parents of school-age kids, and found that 76 percent of them think their child is under too much pressure from school, and 64 percent say their kids are being burdened with too many assignments.

Those are pretty high numbers, but I can't say I'm surprised. My daughter is in ninth grade, and last week alone she had four tests, two quizzes, and an essay due. It's a lot of work for one kid to tackle in five days, and I hate seeing her so stressed out. She walks into the house after school every day, grabs a snack, then sighs and trudges upstairs, her huge backpack weighing her down both literally and metaphorically.

I worry about how she's dealing with her stress constantly—and apparently I'm not alone. As many as 90 percent of parents admitted they've had reason to fear their child is struggling to cope, and two out of three said they felt their kid was currently at risk of burnout after noticing key signs like mood swings, easy irritation, constant fatigue, and headaches.

Perhaps that's one of the reasons more than half of the parents admitted to letting their child have a day off from school to decompress—I know I've done it—and one in five of them say they've sought professional help.

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"Today's students have to balance classwork, homework, study groups, family life, extracurricular activities, sports, and even part-time jobs," said Andrew Grauer, co-founder and CEO of Course Hero. "We need to ask ourselves: Are we asking too much of these kids given how much time they have for all these activities, and, more importantly, how can we help them outside the classroom?"

Good question. And while there's no one-size-fits-all answer, things like exercise and getting enough sleep have been shown to help, as have mindfulness techniques like breathing exercises, yoga, and meditation.

Hollee Actman Becker is a freelance writer, blogger, and a mom. Check out her website holleeactmanbecker.com for more, and then follow her on Twitter at @holleewoodworld.