New research by a money saving website in the UK has revealed that British children are more commonly disciplined by their mums than their dads. According to the poll, mums will discipline their children 12 times per week, compared to 7 carried out by British fathers. Furthermore, it was found that mothers in the South West discipline their children the most.
New research has revealed that British mums punish their children more so than their dads with mum’s dishing out five more scolding’s per week than their partners.
The team at www.VoucherCodesPro.co.uk conducted the survey as part of an ongoing research into British parenting. 2,342 British parents aged 18 and over, all of whom stated they had at least one child between the ages of four and 16 years old, were quizzed about how they discipline their child. Of this 2,342, 1,172 were mothers and the remaining 1,171 were fathers. All participants were spread evenly across each region of the the UK.
Initially, female respondents were asked ‘Do you think you discipline your child more than your husband/partner does?’ to which the majority (82%) stated they believed they did. All female participants were then asked how much, on average, they punished their children in a week, to which the average emerged as 12 times. From this it was also found that mothers in the South West disciplined their children the most at 18 times on average and North East disciplined the least, at only 4 times on average.
Following on from this, the mothers were asked why they thought they typically punished their children more than their partners with the following emerging as the top 5 answers:
- My partner is too laid back – 34%
- My partner likes to be seen as the ‘fun’ parent – 26%
- I tend to spend more time with my children – 17%
- My partner leaves disciplining to me – 11%
- My partner laughs when he tries to tell our child off – 9%
Following on from this, the male participants were asked “Do you think you discipline your child more than your partner does?” to which, 5% said they did. These respondents were then asked how often they disciplined their child in an average week, with 7 times emerging as the overall average. From this, researchers also found that fathers in Northern Ireland discipline their children the most out of any other region, with 12 emerging as the average answer and the fathers in the South East discipline their children the least, at only 3 times per average week.
When asked, ‘Why do you think you discipline your child less than your partner?’ 92% stated it was because their partner was ‘the serious one’. George Charles, spokesperson for www.VoucherCodesPro.co.uk, made the following comments:
“Becoming a parent is very much about becoming a team with your partner. It’s easy to fall into the pattern of one parent becoming the ‘fun’ one, while the other is burdened with telling children off and teaching them right from wrong. To make it fair, ensure both of you are doing their fair share of disciplining and also ensure that both you and your partner get to take your children for exciting days out, even if you alternate as this is a great way for young kids to associate you with fun!”