Mother's Day: Moms Get The Respect They Deserve!

Turning our heads to another important holiday, morefocused recently surveyed people’s thoughts on Mother’s Day. Over 1,200 people answered questions about motherhood, their relationship with their mother – both as a child and an adult – and appropriate gifts for the occasion. Inviting variation, our focus group didn’t simply consist of mothers: 69% were parents or guardians and 19% of the respondents were male. Just over half (57%) were mothers themselves.

 

For an interesting start, we found that motherhood may start earlier than you think. The majority of mothers (48%) reported that they first began to feel like a mother before their child was born (when they were pregnant). Others didn’t feel like mothers until their baby was born (25%), or until after the baby was born and they returned home (21%).

 

No one ever said that being a mom is easy, and according to our survey, men are even less likely to think so. 88% of male respondents without children said that being a mom is difficult, and that figure fell only slightly among fathers (85%). Mommies get respect from women without children too: 86% rated the job as difficult. Practice may not make perfect, but it certainly appears to make the job easier as 71% of moms said that being a mom is a difficult endeavor.

 

Our survey begun to pry a little deeper as we quizzed respondents on their mother’s mothering skills. It was a pleasant surprise to find that 71% described them as good with an additional 17% passing them as fair. The next two questions followed a similar pattern: 62% of respondents noted their relationship with their mother growing up was good, with 23% remembering it to be fair. Not surprisingly, the numbers climbed a little when we asked about respondents adult relationship with their mother: 70% said it was good with just 16% answering ‘fair’.

 

A whopping 80% of parents said they’re closer to their own children than their parents were with them (48% said they’re “very much” closer, 32% “somewhat”). Only 3% said “not at all.” This line of questioning led us to wonder how parenthood changed people. 86% of our respondents said that being a parent has helped them to understand their own parents better (50% “very much”, 36% “somewhat”). Bringing it back to the star of the show though, our respondents proved that Moms are still important as ever: 45% of parents admitted they ask their mom for parental advice.

 

But enough of this mushy stuff, now we’re finally able to answer the fundamental question, what gifts do mothers REALLY want to receive on Mother’s Day? According to our survey, the majority of respondents (89% of moms, 83% non-moms) agreed that time spent with family is the best gift a mother can receive. However, when mothers were asked in a separate question what gift they WANTED MOST, only 38% selected time with family, although it was the number one answer. Other popular gifts (in order of popularity) were as follows: help around the house (11%), a homemade gift (8%), cards (8%), flowers/plants (7%) and meal at restaurant (7%).

 

So, did moms receive the gifts they wanted this year? According to our survey, not really, but greeting card companies will be happy. A whopping 71% of respondents said they were going to give their mother a card, followed by flowers/plants (30%). Only 23% said they were going to give their mom “time with family,” the most wanted gift. So does this mean we are horrible gift givers? Not likely. “Time spent with family” may not be feasible in an age where many families are spread across the country, or even the globe.

 

Now that we’ve run motherhood through our fair and pleasantly honest panel, next up are the Dad’s. Gentlemen, start your engines… Don’t forget Father’s Day on June 18th!