A modern day ‘PhenomeMUM’
A new study crowns modern mums the Mistresses of Multi Tasking, Radox study* reveals women with kids are the best multi-taskers, and the older the kids get, the better they get!
It's official - the modern mum does it all - and often 20 times a day, according to a national survey conducted by Radox, the UK's number one washing and bathing brand, launched as part of its ‘Be Selfish' campaign.
Coined the ‘PhenomeMum', these mums are completing an average of 17 different tasks every single day, with a third completing a to-do list of 20 tasks or more! Whether it's doing the housework (93%), food shopping (92%), cooking the evening meals (88%), washing up (85%), disciplining the kids (77%), helping with homework (73%) or paying the household bills (72%) it seems a mother's work is never done!
These modern mums actually need to become ‘Octomummys', not only do they need eyes in the back of their heads but extra arms and legs! On average 52% percent of mums are able to do up to four different tasks at one time; a typical scenario might include putting the dinner in the oven, whilst chatting to a friend on the phone, whilst bending down to feed the cat, whilst tying up a pair of shoes, keeping the peace, and logging onto the internet to pay the heating bill and check their twitter.
On the plus side mums do develop into the ‘mistresses of multi-tasking' as their kids get older. Only 12% of mums with children 0-1 years old reported being able to five things at once, compared to over 20% of those with six year olds. 24% of those with babies (0-1 years) recorded being able to complete 25 different tasks a day versus 31% with kids aged 6-10 years.
The men of the household? Well, they just can't cut-it in the multitasking stakes; one in 20 PhenomeMums reported the ability to do over ten things more than their partners in any given hour.
If they were to play the starring role in a film about the modern day mum, 66% would choose to play the superhero ‘Queen Multitasker' (no matter how busy she is, she will get everything done in the fastest time possible), 33% would play Florence Nightingale (on call 24/7 and have a medicine cupboard that rivals Boots), and 26% Chef Extraordinaire (any meal, anytime, anywhere) and 26UN Peace Maker (kids, partners, in-laws she can keep it all together 24/7).
Is the ‘PhenomeMum' feeling more like an ‘OverwhelMum'?
The answer is largely yes. 84% feel a pressure to be good at everything 24/7, 83% say that there are not enough hours in the day and 82% feel their to-do list is endless. 82% often run out of hours to do everything, leaving 77% of PhenomeMums sitting on the sofa feeling more like an OverwhelMum!
All this running around after the family; cooking, cleaning, walking the dog and grocery shopping is resulting in more and more tired, stressed-out women. 63% are reporting regular ‘boiling over' outbursts**, with men taking the worst of it, with 50% of women admitting to yelling at their partners. A quarter of women report a ‘boiling over' episode every week, and a further 10% every day.
Radox has coined these mini eruptions as ‘Vesuvial moments', where everyday stresses build up and up to the point where it all boils over, often at those in the closest vicinity.
So what can be done to help the ‘PhenomeMum'?
Radox say simply ‘Be Selfish', and has joined forces with leading parenting network Mumsnet to become the official sponsor of its popular Mumsnet Book Club in a bid to encourage busy Mums to take a ‘Selfish Reading Hour' this autumn. From 1st November Radox will be giving away a thousand free books every month.
Marianne McGoldrick, Marketing Manager for Radox explains: "For our audience of busy ‘PhenomeMums' time is the one commodity they have least and value the most. We found the majority of mums cited reading a book as what they would most like to do if they had just an hour to themselves, so by teaming up with Mumsnet, we are going to help them achieve this. Over the next six months we will be giving away thousands of free books to Mums up and down the country and are hoping that for just an hour they can enjoy some Selfish time out."
So ‘PhenomeMUMs’ log onto www.be-selfish.co.uk/selfishreadinghour-mumsnet and claim your selfish reading hour!