The Value of Mum

How much is your Mum worth this Mother's Day?

Obviously she's priceless, but what if she actually needed paying? What if there was a Job of mom'? Looking at it another way how much would it cost to actually employ Mum?

With Mother's Day just around the corner our intrepid research and design combo thought it would be an interesting experiment to actually price up the job of Mum' and see how many of you would actually apply...

Looks pretty attractive on first glance doesn't it! Almost 100,000.00 for a year's work and I'm guessing many of you are already reaching for your resume. But what does the job of Mum entail, what are the hours and is it really as attractive as it looks at first glance?

Childcare*

The role of Mom to pre-school children obviously needs to be on call to provide childcare 24hrs a day, 365 days a year. However, the average child sleeps 8 hours a night, so that only equates to a mere 16 hours a day actually working and the other 8 hours being on call'. Childs play!

Caring for children in your own home is a service similar to that of a Nanny. On average a Nanny is paid 8.40 per hour, and normally works 37.5hrs a week, has two days off a week, is entitled to paid-holidays and only works evenings after prior arrangement. Unfortunately our Mom has no such luxury as for the first 4 - 5 years of the child's life, she has to work 7 days a week, has no holiday time (unpaid or otherwise). This equates to 5840 hours a year or 112 hours a week dedicated to Childcare.

Once the little one makes his or her way into the World of education then the job of Mum becomes a little easier as Children spend 38 weeks of the year in school, which is a minimum of 836 hrs, which means that the quota required for childcare is a mere 5000 hours annually (96 hours a week) once they are donning their school uniform.

*The average number of children per family in the UK is 1.8, with 2 children being the most common family size. Therefore were necessary calculations will be worked out based on 2 children.

Household Chores

Cleaning

The average Mom spends 69 minutes a day cleaning, which totals 8hrs 5 minutes a week or just over 420hrs a year. With the average cleaning service costing 10.40 an hour, mum completes 4,368 worth of cleaning a year.

What could Mom do with those 420hrs if they weren't busy mothering'? Swim the 140 miles of the Thames from Lechlade to the South Bank, twice, or climb Mount Kilimanjaro with time to spare for a wildlife safari.

Cooking

Moms spend around 13 hours a week preparing meals which equates to 28 days a year or 2.3 days a month or just shy of 13 hours a week. To employ a domestic cook for this period of time it would cost 6,084. If Mum was actually paid for this service she could afford to eat out once a week at Heston Blumenthal's The Fat Duck restaurant or have a bottle of Dom Peringnon champagne every week!

Washing and Ironing

In a year a mum of two will do 125 loads of children's washing, which is around 680kg and would cost 3,740 if sent to a laundry service. This is the same weight as the original 1967 mini cooper S with driver and if laid out piece by piece would cover a rugby pitch. Approximately 2hrs 10 minutes a week is spent on this chore including ironing.

Chauffer Service

9 hours a week of mum’s time is spent chauffeuring kids to and from school, clubs, friends etc. To hire a chauffeur to drive your own car would cost 16.20 an hour, a total cost of 7,582 a year. If mum did her yearly driving all in one go she would be able to travel from London-Paris-Brussels-Berlin-Warsaw-Budapest-Vienna-Madrid-London and have time to spend a day and a half in each city.

Nursing and Wellbeing

The average child will suffer 6-8 respiratory infections and 2-3 stomach upsets a year, which means mums spend an average of 56 days a year caring for sick kids. With Healthcare assistants earning from 7-10 an hour, mum is providing a service worth around 10,000 a year. It’s not only physical wellbeing mums have to take care of, there is also mental welfare. It’s estimated that mums spend 3.7hrs a week counselling their children, dealing with issues such as lost favourite toys, first heart break, broken friendships to more serious issues like bullying. Counsellors charge from 10-35 per 1hr session, so mum is providing a service valued at around 4,233 a year. If mum was paid for these duties her and dad (or other male) would be able to take a 2wk break in a top suite at an all-inclusive Caribbean resort with butler service and still have some spending money left over.

Total = 90,220 which equates to 1.6 million for 18 years! For this you could buy 5 Rolls Royce Phantoms or Kate Middleton’s engagement ring 17 times over and have enough left to buy her wedding dress as well.

If the value of mum is well on the way to a 6 figure income, what other jobs are there with this kind of pay? Chief execs, directors and managing directors all earn 100,000+, with duties involving overall running of a company, leadership, negotiation and strategy, all key skills required by a mum! Plus they get around 6 weeks holiday a year. Aircraft pilots earn slightly less than a 6 figure income with an average wage of 72,000, but they do have the chance to see the world and cheap/free flights and they have a minimum rest period of 12 hours after a shift, what wouldn’t a mum give for 12 hours of rest?

Treat your Mum to something extra special this Mother's Day.