Dad's Taxi Service now mums'
Dad's Taxi Service – the famously free lift home regularly exploited by the UK’s teenagers – is now mostly driven by mum, new research has revealed.
Almost six out of 10 rides in ‘Dad’s Taxi’ (58%) are now taken with the nation’s mums at the wheel, according to a UK study by laundry experts Dr Beckmann, which involved a poll of 2,000 mums across their customer database in June 2014.
In fact, despite continuing to be responsible for most of their traditional domestic duties in UK homes, British mums are now taking on more ‘dad’ roles than ever before.
Not only are most mums still held responsible for domestic tasks like doing the laundry, cooking dinner and cleaning and tidying the home (65% of mums say these duties fall mainly to them), a large proportion of mums (43%) are also now as likely to be found doing DIY, mowing the lawn and other tasks traditionally considered ‘male’ roles.
But it is the driving of the legendary Dad’s Taxi that has seen the biggest swing in the old-fashioned roles of parents in the UK.
As the title suggests, Dad’s Taxi was once the sole preserve of the man of the house – dispatched at unsociable hours to ferry the nation’s children to and from their latest social occasion in order to save them walking home alone or having to use public transport.
“But with 58% of all Dad’s Taxi trips being driven by mum in 2014, it might be better to rename it as Mum’s Taxi,” said Dr Beckmann spokeswoman Susan Fermor.
“While the nation’s mums are taking on more and more traditionally male roles in the modern family setting, for the large part they still maintain most of their own traditionally female domestic tasks like doing the laundry.
“A small percentage of UK dads do cook regularly and some even know how to operate a washing machine and dishwasher but for most of the dads in the UK their traditional ‘breadwinner’ role means they still do very few of what are considered ‘female’ domestic tasks, according to their wives and girlfriends at least.”
The Dr Beckmann survey reveals that 54% of mums still do the majority of the day-to-day cooking in the modern British home.
It also reveals how 55% of mums are still largely responsible for doing the laundry. Some 51% of mums still do most of the domestic ironing in the UK and 53% of mums do most of the washing up.
There are some traditional male roles that still remain largely untouched by the nation’s mums however. Car repairs and maintenance is carried out by less than 5% of UK mums. Cooking food on a barbeque is also still largely a male preserve with just 10% of mums doing BBQ cooking.
And while mums are happy to help out with some DIY duties like painting and decorating you’re unlikely to find mum up to her neck in the hinges and shelves of flat-pack furniture construction or bookshelf erection.
