The typical American work-week is between 40-50 hours on average, depending on the job and on your commute. Most of us spend a big part of our lives at work, but there’s a category that spends double the average time working.
A recent study showed that working moms pretty much never stop working, unless they are sleeping.
2,000 American mothers of children aged 5 to 12 took part in the study, and they shared their techniques, tools, and resources they use to take care of their families. It’s the moms that keep everything running relatively smoothly in the family and keep everyone happy and healthy.
Cooking, cleaning, grocery shopping, juggling schedules, and managing a household is a full-time job in itself, so when you add the full working time, the study concluded that the average working mom works around 98 hours per week. Ouch. Her average work day typically begins at 6:23 AM, and it ends at 8:31 PM.
98 hours is just a couple short of triple digits. In one week. Of course, there are many working mothers that share their duties with their partners, but the Mom Burden is real.
The study also found that the average working mom only gets about 1 hour and 7 minutes to herself daily. That’s only 7 hours and 49 minutes “time off”, weekly!
Casey Lewis, MS, RD and Health & Nutrition Lead at Welch’s, who provided the study, says:
“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. Busy moms may identify with the list of ‘lifesavers’, which highlights not just a rigorous workload but a constant requirement to feed and fuel the family, week in and week out.”
The moms in the study were asked to rank their must-haves in order to keep them sane throughout their life, and the list includes: wine, Netflix, reliable babysitters, and grandparents.
This information does not come as a surprise, but it can be useful. The next time someone asks us why do we look so “tired”, we got 98 reasons why!