Mothers’ dreams go on ice

MUMS are sacrificing their own personal passions to give the best to their children.

New research shows 77 per cent of Australian mums are putting their own desires on hold to chase those of their children.

Since becoming a mum, 59 per cent of Australian women have all but stopped pursuing their passion or interest with one in five stopping completely.

The data, commissioned by Go People and conducted by PureProfile, found the average mum spent more than 10 hours a week doing soccer runs, dance or swim classes among other things, in the pursuit of their children’s happiness.

This is more than double the four hours a week the average mother gets to herself.

The most common activities taking up Aussie mums’ time, according to the 1001 women surveyed, are family commitments (78 per cent), domestic chores (66 per cent) and careers (36.6 per cent).

The most popular hobbies or interests mums had before having children included reading/writing (42 per cent), travel (39 per cent), music (36 per cent), cooking (33 per cent) and craft (26 per cent).

A total of 18 per cent of mums have totally stopped their hobby or passion since giving birth, 59 per cent have reduced the time they have to spend on their hobby or passion and 23 per cent still manage to make time for their hobby or passion.

Six per cent of mums said they got no time to themselves each week and 30 per cent got less than two hours of “me time”. But in true mum fashion 34 per cent of respondents said they wanted to spend quality time with their kids this Mother’s Day.