Parenting is a full time job - motherhood is equal to two says science

Well, duh.

Words by Caitlin Gallagher

From the editors of HelloGiggles

Everyone says being a mum is a full-time job, but how many people really think about the amount of time mums spend doing work for other people? Well, thanks to a new study by Welch’s (yes, the fruit juice company), we can place a number on how long mums work per week. And in today’s completely unsurprising news, the study shows that mums pretty much work two full-time jobs.

According to Working Mother, Welch’s commissioned a study of 2,000 American mothers with kids between the ages of 5 and 12. What they found was that, on average, working mothers essentially spend 98 hours a week working.

With a traditional work week being 40 hours, that means that working mums are working overtime, all the time.

The 98-hour workweek was calculated by using the fact that the mums in the study, on average, started their days at 6:23 a.m., with family duties or work not being completed until 8:31 p.m. That makes for a 14-hour work day. If you multiply that by seven, you get 98 hours.

Now, while we may have some issues with the math (you would think you wouldn’t multiply the full 14 hours by seven. since most people only work their day jobs five times a week), we can’t dispute the fact that mums spend way more of their time doing stuff for other people than they do for themselves.

And the study also found that mums claim to only get one hour and seven minutes of 'me time' each day.

If you’re a mum and are feeling tired, just remember this 98-hour number and know that you have every reason to be exhausted. Don’t feel guilty about it. And if possible, make it a priority to get some help so you can have additional time to yourself for your own mental health. You’ve earned it.