By Charlotte Hope, Lifestyle Editor @TLE _lifestyle
I do nothing at xmas apart from eating and drinking. I don’t care who does the jobs, as long as it isn’t me. Also I don’t have kids, but when I do, I will make them do all the jobs. Xmas is “me” time, they are just going to have to accept it. However, in most households it appears mums do most of the work in the build up and execution of the festive season.
Mums are responsible for 23 jobs over the Christmas period while dads get away with doing eight, a survey has revealed. A study found mums will make sure tasks such as decorating the house to buying the turkey and arranging family visits are completed on time.
Helping the children write their Christmas list and cleaning the house to prepare for festive visitors will fall into mum’s domain while dad will drive to pick up the in-laws and buy the batteries. Doing the big Christmas food and drink shop, buying the presents for the children and their friends also sit on mum’s list of responsibilities.
Stephen Kitson, Director of Corporate Communications at Kia Motors, which commissioned the study of ‘pink and blue’ Christmas jobs, said: ‘’Mums can be really busy over the festive period because most of the time they’re the most organised.
‘’So it makes sense that dad will be sent to pick up the in-laws giving mum a little more time to get things ready on Christmas Day. It’s nice to see most families can rely on each other to get things done so that the lead up to Christmas runs smoothly. Although, the season might be a little more fun for mum if she didn’t have so much to think about throughout December.’’
The research revealed mum will end up with three times as many jobs to do than dad over the festive period including wrapping the Christmas presents and buying and writing the cards.
On Christmas Day itself, mum will be at her busiest as she peels the vegetables, prepares and cooks the turkey so dad can carve it at the dinner table.
But at this point dad will step up and pour the drinks during dinner and put the rubbish outside so mum can have a few minutes to enjoy the day. Mum will be the one clearing away the wrapping paper after the presents have been opened and tidying away all the new toys.
And if she needs a bit of peace and quiet, dad will take the children outside to try out their new bike or outdoor toys for a while. Then, once the big day is over it’s dad who will drive the family to visit the relatives as he is the designated driver over the Christmas season.
It seems mums underestimate the amount of work they do as they believe they take on just 20 jobs, while dad overestimates his help and says he does at least 13 jobs over the season of good will. Households across the country are quite organised in their planning for Christmas as six in ten couples have set tasks in the lead up to the big day which stay the same every year.
But not all Brits are happy with this as 45 per cent of mums and dads end up having an argument of some kind over the allocation of festive jobs. And this usually comes down to either mum or dad forgetting something or not doing their fair share of jobs in the run up to Christmas.
Forgetting to send someone a card is the most frequent of errors while forgetting to buy batteries is the other. But Christmas time can really build up the stress levels in many homes across the country as there is always a lot more to do than the rest of the year.
This even comes down to the driving as three in ten Brits think they end up behind the wheel for longer at Christmas than any other time of year.
Stephen Kitson added: ‘’Christmas is a time for seeing family so it’s perhaps not too much of a surprise that we spend more time driving during the festive period than any other time.”
MUM’S CHRISTMAS JOBS
· Helping the children to write their Christmas list
· Buying Christmas presents for the children
· Buying Christmas presents for children’s friends
· Decorating the house
· Doing the big Christmas food and drink shop
· Buying the turkey
· Cleaning the house to prepare for festive visitors
· Arranging family visits
· Peeling vegetables
· Preparing the turkey
· Cooking the turkey
· Washing up
· Cleaning up wrapping paper after opening presents
· Tidying away all the new toys
· Buying Christmas presents for relatives
· Wrapping Christmas presents
· Buying Christmas cards
· Writing Christmas cards
· Sending / delivering Christmas cards
· Sending / delivering Christmas presents
· Sorting the children’s nativity costumes
· Picking out / buying the Christmas tree
· Decorating the Christmas tree
DAD’S JOBS
· Driving to pick up the in-laws
· Buying the batteries
· Driving to visit relatives over the Christmas period
· Carving the turkey
· Pouring drinks during dinner
· Putting rubbish outside
· Getting children’s toys out of boxes and set up to play
· Taking children outdoors to play with toys
