Man about the house

Modern men are rising to the challenge of parenthood with dads spending 28 hours a week doing household chores, a new study reveals.

Dads clock up four hours cooking, 90 minutes washing up and 13 hours on driving duties each week, according to research by FIAT.

The Italian car maker commissioned 72 Point to conduct the survey of 1,000 UK respondents in November.

From taking the kids to after-school sports clubs, to ironing, vacuuming, cooking and cleaning the kitchen, dads rack up a total of 28 hours and 14 minutes doing their weekly chores.

In addition to working a 35-hour working week, today’s so-called ‘super dads’ spend up to 20 hours playing with their kids, with 60% saying they can multitask.

Fathers are also now more frugal than ever, saving as much as £516.44 a year. Some 60% claim they save money by turning out the lights, half keep the heating on low (54%), and one in four switch off the telly rather than keep it on standby (37%).

Though dads are pulling their weight in chores, that does not stop them being big kids at heart. A total of 32% say watching cartoons was one of the best perks of being a parent, while 29% admit they used it as an excuse to buy toys for themselves.

Blaming the kids for making a mess when it was them is also a guilty secret of 11% of dads, as well as using the kids as an excuse to get out of social events (37%).

The list of the top 10 household chores undertaken by dads is:

   
        1   Driving car – 13 hours 21 minutes
        2    Cooking – 4 hours 10 minutes
        3    Washing up – 1 hour 21 minutes
        4    Grocery shopping  – 1 hour 20 minutes
        5    DIY – 1 hour 2 minutes
        6    Ironing – 52 minutes
        7    Cleaning kitchen – 51 minutes
        8    Vacuuming – 51 minutes
        9    Mowing the lawn – 47 minutes
       10   Cleaning bathroom – 39 minutes

Source: FIAT UK