IT'S OFFICIAL: TIME IS MORE VALUABLE THAN MONEY FOR AUSSIE PARENTS
- Amelia Taylor
- 29 minutes ago
- 3 min read
It turns out that the most significant pressure on Australian families right now isn’t money. It’s time. Actual minutes. The sacred non-renewable resource that disappears faster than a Paddle Pop left in a school bag.
New national research from Flexischools’ Simplifying School Life Report, surveying over 5,000 parents, found that 72 per cent now value convenience and time-saving more than cost.
Time poverty has overtaken cost-of-living stress. We’re now officially trading dollars for minutes because the juggle has become that intense.
And nowhere is that clearer than in the great Australian lunchtime reality check.
The invisible lunch load
Flexischools data shows mums make up 80 per cent of users on the platform and place 85 per cent of all school lunch orders.
Dads are improving, but still only account for 20 per cent of users and 15 per cent of orders. Even with dads’ lunch participation rising 36 per cent since 2022, the day-to-day lunch grind is overwhelmingly done by women.
Think about that for a second. It’s 2025, and the mental load remains heavily gendered. The lunchbox, like socks and permission slips, remains a culturally pink item.
"Women are often the ones managing the moving parts of family life: lunches, drop-offs, and pick-ups, school events, and everything in between, so it’s no surprise that this is what we see on the Flexischools platform", says Rachel Debeck, CEO of Flexischools.
"As a busy mother myself, I know how much difference it makes when something is simple and seamless, because every saved minute counts."
A parent's survival strategy
Despite financial pressures, almost half of families (46 per cent) haven’t changed their canteen ordering habits.
Parents are placing around 2.56 orders per week, roughly the same as last year. Why? Because school canteens are no longer about convenience fries.
They’re a time management system that keeps households upright.
Two-thirds of parents say the canteen is now an essential part of their weekly routine. And three-quarters say time has become their most valuable resource.
As Debeck puts it: "In 2025, value isn’t judged by dollars or even nutrition alone. It’s measured in minutes saved and stress reduced."
The exhaustion is real
"Parents aren’t imagining it. There really is more pressure than ever before," says parent educator and Flexischools spokesperson Genevieve Muir.
"This report lays bare what I hear from families every day: parents are busier, kids are doing more, and the village looks completely different from the one most of us grew up with."
With nearly three-quarters of households having both parents working, everything is happening faster, later and with fewer humans around to help.
What’s helping? Small shifts.Sharing the load.Using digital systems for what used to be manual.Letting go of perfection.
Translation: Drop the guilt. Order the tuckshop toastie.
Digital ordering is now the default
Parents expect convenience in every other part of life. Banking, groceries, transport. It tracks that schools are following.
A total of 69 per cent of families say digital school platforms save them real time. Parents can spend over 100 hours a year making lunches versus 10 minutes a week placing online orders.
That is not a slight difference. That is a lifestyle philosophy.
Canteens teach money smarts
Forget the '90s lunch line of meat pies and $2 coins jammed in sweaty hands. Modern canteens are digital, allergy-aware and occasionally quinoa-adjacent.
Kids can now practice real-world money skills through prepaid cards and cashless systems, and parents say that’s a meaningful benefit.
81 per cent of parents involve their child in choosing their order. Parents see cashless systems as safer (54 per cent). And 72 per cent say it keeps schools safer overall.
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