We’ve just spent the day/weekend spoiling our mums for Mother’s Day, with 44,064 Brits even going online to vocalise their mum-love and showcase their celebrations (Sysomos, 2018). With the day now behind us we take a look to see if all this fuss is what mum really wants, or is it something that we’ve been led to believe?
Last year research conducted by Mintel found that it is the event when more cash is splashed than any other occasion in the Spring/Summer Season – sorry fathers and boyfriends/girlfriends. In fact, we even spend more on Mother’s Day than Easter!
In recent years a box of chocolates and breakfast in bed hasn’t been considered enough, with a greater number of the British population being more extravagant with their gifts; in average we spend £30 on our mums for the day (Haystack Digital, 2018). This generosity was expected to continue this year too, with £600 million forecast to be spent on the day in 2018, a 3.4% rise from 2017 (Mintel, 2018).
However, are all the gifts and treats what mums really want?
Research conducted by Mumsnet (2018) whereby they surveyed 1,300 mums found that one of the best presents we can actually give is a bit of peace! The top thing that mums said they wanted for Mother’s Day was a lie in (9 in 10), followed by two thirds who wanted at least an hour of peace on the day – a far cry from the ‘wanting to be spoiled’ take on the day that many of us have been led to believe they want.
The study also found that many mums find themselves doing their everyday chores like cooking (62%), laundry (58%) and cleaning (49%), so maybe we should just concentrate on taking these off their hands in the future as opposed to buying them expensive gifts?
