– Dads spend 53.5 hours a week helping households run smoothly

– Value of a Dad’s domestic contribution is £24,000 per year

– Fathers in the West Midlands and Scotland do the most washing up at 3.5 hours a week.

Who said men don’t help out around the house?  Apparently dads spend seven and a half hours a day helping households run smoothly according to a study from Legal & General Life Insurance, This equals an impressive 53.5 hours a week.

The total includes time spent cooking, cleaning and looking after children. If families had to pay for this work by employing cleaners or child minders they would have to find an extra £23,971 a year showing Dads are helping cut down on household bills. The figure is up 13% from when the survey was last carried out in 2011, when a father’s help was worth £21,306.  As a contrast the survey also showed the day to day cost of raising a child has risen to £8,580 per year since 2011, meaning parents now spend £154,440 on each child by the age of 18.

Dads who live in the North East are the most valuable to their households contributing £33,925 a year in domestic duties. Dads in the South West spend the least amount of time with their children at 18.5 hours a week.  Fathers in the West Midlands and Scotland top the tables for washing up spending 3.5 hours a week doing the dishes.  Dads across the UK do between 5-7 hours of cooking each week.

Despite the heavy costs of bringing up a child the research showed that many parents do not have adequate protection in place should they or their partner become ill or die.  Only 31% of parents have a will putting their children at risk of financial insecurity should the worst happen.  Similarly only 29% of parents have critical illness cover in place and a mere 14% have income protection.