The most relaxing part of my morning drive is the walk from the back car door to the driver’s seat after strapping the kids in. Today, at 7.54am, I’d slept six interrupted hours. My daughter was belting out Let It Go, demanding I turn it up but under no circumstances sing along. My son had dropped his Mickey Mouse toy and insisted I retrieve it immediately. Meanwhile, I was merging into peak-hour traffic, watching cyclists, clocking school zones and trying to keep everyone alive.

For me, the highest-stakes version of the parenting mental load is driving with kids in the car while I’m exhausted and required to be flawlessly alert. Research backs what us parents already know: kids are among the most significant distractions while driving. A Monash University study found parents spend over three minutes of a 16-minute trip with their eyes off the road.

A driver takes their hands off the wheel of a Nissan Leaf electric vehicle equipped with autonomous driving technology during a test ride in the Yokohama, Japan.Credit: Bloomberg

I’m an anxious driver at the best of times, and the school run is never the........

© The Sydney Morning Herald