The average mom drives 1,248 miles – the equivalent of London to Zurich and back – ferrying the kids around every year, it has been revealed. The incredible lengths which mums go to to ensure the children get to sports clubs, swimming events and other evening hobbies on time emerged following a study carried out among 2,000 mothers.
Additionally the study found weary mums fork out around £1,714.04 on fuel, with the average household having to top up their cars an average of four times a month.
Rob Law, a spokesman for BoostApak, which commissioned the study, said:
”We aren’t surprised to see how much time mums spend driving their children to various places.
”Children have so many after school clubs and other activities to take part in during the week, and if mom has more than one child to take to different clubs, the mileage will soon add up.
”School is probably the most common trip that mums have to make followed by swimming classes and other sports clubs.
”Parties and visiting friends’ houses are other reasons behind multiple trips. Mum might take her eldest to a friend’s house while the youngest needs to go to swimming club – such a hectic schedule.
”It’s because of these numerous trips that the fuel bill is so big, but we don’t think mums would have it any other way unless it was absolutely necessary.
”Mums will do anything to make their children happy and you can tell this just from these results.”
The study also found that mums will also spend the equivalent of two weeks a year driving their children to various different places.
That’s around an hour of every day spent ferrying children to clubs, parties and friends’ houses – a total of six hours and 43 minutes each week.
It also emerged mums often call on help from friends and family to get the kids to their extra curricular activities, with grandparents also mucking in.
In fact, 46% of grandparents already have a booster seat ready and waiting for when they are needed – which means one less worry for the already exhausted mom.
It’s not just the driving part of the journey that takes up a lot of mum’s time – it take seven minutes on average to get the kids in to the car, from saying it’s time to leave to pulling away (that’s an extra 28 minutes every week spent on the taxi meter).
Unfortunately, over half of mums polled said they have the same taxi routine week in, week out.
Two thirds of mums have also said that not only do they taxi their own children around, but they’re often called up on to help friends or relatives with driving their kids around too.
A quarter of these mums said that it ends up being a special trip for that child and adds to the weekly routine for their own children.
These journeys are said to add 576 miles a year to the mileage alone.
And more than two in five mums carry a spare booster seat for the times they’re needed by others.
The spokeswoman added:
”Helping another mom out almost comes as second nature to most women, and giving another child a lift is included in this.
”576 miles is equivalent to someone driving to Paris and back, it’s such a long way when you think about it.
”Many women will be able to sympathise with this, driving around in mum’s taxi is becoming more and more common.”
