The Vast Gap Between The Me-Time Mothers Get Vs What They Deserve

Parenting is no joke.
Black family, restaurant and eating with mom kiss and child together with bonding, food and care. Love, diner and table with burgers and happy girl with lunch and hungry people in a cafe with drink
Kobus Louw via Getty Images
Black family, restaurant and eating with mom kiss and child together with bonding, food and care. Love, diner and table with burgers and happy girl with lunch and hungry people in a cafe with drink

Before becoming a parent you don’t actually realise how much of yourself you have to give to your little human.

Sure, you hear about it all the time from other parents, but it never sinks in until you’ve lived through it yourself. In fact, mothers give so much of themselves that they end up with a ridiculously low amount of me-time in the day.

The average amount of daily ‘me-time’ that mums with children under the age of three are able to receive is 36 minutes.

Yes, you read that right.

That’s only 2.5% of their ENTIRE day, according to a Mother’s Day survey conducted by Eflorist. Alongside this, a whopping one in five mums in the UK say they get ZERO me-time outside their mum and work responsibilities.

The research shows that almost 73% of mums said they wished they had more time for self-care, a further 66% said they felt they could do a better job as a mum if they were able to get this time to themselves.

So, what DO mums spend their time doing?

Obviously, the role of motherhood isn’t one you can simply clock out of. Research found that even on weekends 42% of mums aren’t able to meet up with friends at the weekend.

Eflorist asked mothers how long they spend doing daily tasks, such as cooking, cleaning, taking their kids to activities, and shopping for the household.

It found that on average, mums are spending an astounding four hours and 24 minutes A DAY running around after their families.

Despite this, 66% of mums experience ‘mum guilt’ which means they feel like they don’t live up to their parenting expectations.

On average, this is what mums spend doing:

- one hour and 24 minutes doing housework every day

- one hour and 18 minutes cooking every single day

- 54 minutes driving their child(ren) around every single day

- 48 minutes each day shopping for their household

So, even if it’s not Mother’s Day, parents will appreciate if you help them organise some self-care time!

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