Working mums' 28-hour week

Working mothers regularly put in a 28-hour week looking after the family - on top of their full-time job, a study has found. Caring for the children and managing the home - as well as holding down a paid job - means mothers are on the go for just over 13 hours every weekday. Cooking and preparing food, running errands for the family and taking care of pets are daily tasks carried out amid days which begin at 6.45am up until they start work, and then after work until 7.52pm when the children go to bed. The study also found three quarters rarely get a chance to sit down and eat breakfast or dinner at home because of their hectic schedule. The horrendous workload means that, combined with a 37-and-a-half hour a week full-time job, millions of women are putting in an exhausting 66 hours. But the good news is most mothers do get a bit of a break at weekends when father is home to do his share of the housework, and help out with the children. A spokesman for natural cold remedy Kaloba said: “Mums have to work so hard to keep everyone in the family happy, but it’s amazing to see exactly how many hours they have to put in.” “There are so many different tasks to carry out on a daily or weekly basis, and a huge percentage are doing this on top of a paid job of some form.” “It makes you wonder where families would be without a mother doing what they do.” Mums need to try and take time out in their day to sit down and relax, even for just a few minutes, to give themselves a break.” The study of 2,000 mothers found in an average week, more than eight-and-a-half hours is spent entertaining the children while almost five hours is taken up with cooking and preparing food. Three hours and 38 minutes is spent on the chores and cleaning the home with more than two hours spent buying food and groceries each week. Washing-up or loading the dishwasher accounts for almost two hours per week while just over one hour and 30 minutes is spent running errands for everyone in the family. One hour and 27 minutes is taken up with making the beds or tidying bedrooms, another hour and 25 minutes on helping the children with their homework and an hour and 21 minutes ferrying children to school or evening clubs. An hour and 22 minutes is then spent looking after family pets or walking the dog. On top of this, 40 per cent of busy mothers hold down a full-time job, adding another 37 hours and 30 minutes to the time they spend on the go each day. Almost nine in ten mothers are so busy they often have days when they are doing something from the moment they wake up until the moment they go to sleep. And 92 per cent reckon being a mother is a full-time job in itself. Researchers also found that 63 percent of mothers worry about being so busy that it might be affecting their immune system. More than three quarters also worry that they are more run down due to their hectic lifestyles and more prone to colds and bugs.