In news that will surprise no mom anywhere, a study by Welch’s has shown that motherhood is the equivalent of not one, not two, but two and a half full-time jobs.
Mother’s Day is still two months away, but you might want to start preparing now. According to research by the Welch’s company, the moms in your life are putting in even more time than you might suspect. A survey of 2,000 mothers across the nation reveals a work week that starts at an average of 6:23 AM every day and does not end until approximately 8:31 PM.
Of course, most salaried employees manage a day or two off in the midst of the grind — moms, however, do not. That seven-day total comes out to an average 98 hours per week, or the rough equivalent of two and a half careers worth of labor. Furthermore, the average mother finds a mere hour and seven minutes to herself each day — little more than a single lunch break.
Welch’s Health and Nutrition Lead Casey Lewis said, “The results of the survey highlight just how demanding the role of mom can be and the non-stop barrage of tasks it consists of,” and the moms agreed. An average of four in 10 expressed the feeling that their lives were “a never-ending series of tasks.”
New mothers amplify this to an extreme that makes maternity leave sound more like sentencing. To top it all off, over 60% of mothers under 50 years of age are also part of the professional workforce. Tired yet? Hopefully not, if you are a mom. According to fitPregnancy, you will average a microscopic one to three hours of undisturbed sleep in those pivotal early days (months, years) of your offspring’s new life.
Of course, no mom is without a Batman-esque array of tools to ease the burden. According to the survey, the most important items for holding it all together are naps, toys, wet-wipes, drive-through meals, babysitters, family help, and maybe a bit of wine.
Oh, and coffee. Lots, and lots of coffee.