Kids back at school so Mum can relax ads!

[FunPartyIdeas]

Eurgh!
Am I the only one to be annoyed by these? Why the assumption that women are all permanent SAHMs?!!

Most full-time SAHPs are women. Only about 1% of fathers stay at home full-time in the UK.

@6ate9 Yes but most women work!! Quite rightly!

Most mothers do work. Maybe the ads are targeting mothers because more of them work part-time than fathers in the UK.

@6ate9 That's what I object to - the gender stereotyping.

Well on here that is what we are meant ro be

Advertisers heavily target mothers over fathers in "kids back at school, mum can relax" campaigns because mothers still handle the vast majority of back-to-school purchasing decisions and domestic labour!

@6ate9 Which is unacceptable and shouldn't be supported/cordoned further.

Women still do the vast majority of day-to-day tasks involving their children.

Some women have great husbands/partners who pull their weight, unfortunately plenty don’t.

Sadly it’s not advertisers’ job to care about equality or making the world a better place. They care about selling the most things to the most people. They do a shit ton of research into understanding which types of people spend the most money on which things, and what messaging convinces them to spend.

They’ve made these ads because they speak to the experience of the most lucrative target market - in this case mums who have been responsible for childcare all summer.

When dads take equal responsibility for decisions around spending on domestic & child-related goods and services, we’ll see ads that reflect that.

@VoltaireMittyDream But "bowing" to that unfair division is only going to perpetuate it. Women need to stop agreeing to it / accepting it in the first instance!

@6ate9 So why put up with these men?
Or perhaps women are happy to be permanent SAHM and getting their days 'off in peace' with a Costa? 😀

Some women don’t realise until they’ve had a child. But then they often have more children with the same man, while complaining that he doesn’t help at all.

Well one of my children has gone back to nursery today and I certainly do feel more relaxed 🤣 still have the other toddler at home though !

@6ate9 My ex-husband turned out to be one of those once we had a baby. He was desperate for me to be a SAHM and do all of the "women's jobs." Note I said ex.
Now remarried with a 6 yo, a career I love, and a husband who respects me as an equal.
Accept no less!

Op, I feel you. I don’t really watch tv so haven’t seen or heard the ads, and I understand the marketing drive behind them but I agree it feels like entrenching these stereotypes, and a more creative perspective is needed.

Plus - again haven’t seen the ads - maybe link them? - but I find this type of messaging inherently patronizing.

Possibly in the same vein, it also annoys me that working mums are cast as frazzled jugglers - the “babysick-on-the-suit-on-the-way-out-the-house” vibes, which I also find undermining, and not my experience.

Agree but cannot see how it will change.

Parents with adult children or those without children might argue they can relax too, especially if travelling outside school times!!

@LlynTegid “Agree but cannot see how it will change.”

Same. You cannot force an unmotivated father to care or take on equal responsibilities.

@BrightNewLife I think there is slowly some change. I enjoy the Purdy & Figg ad with the rather attractive bearded man cleaning the kitchen hob. When it came on last night I forgot I was sitting next to my husband and loudly announced: "Bet he's married!!" 😄

@6ate9 You're right - I couldn't. Hence why I left. Life on my own was so much better! Why put up with it?

Only about 1% of women I know stay at home full time too though, and most mothers (particularly of school age children) are in work.

Around a quarter of all women in the UK are out of the workforce looking after family or home. Most women are working.

There are some women who, for many reasons, do not plan or think things through in life, which include having children.

That's fine if that's what you want. It's also fine to be a SAHM or SAHD if that's what you want and can afford. The reality is that lot's of women would choose to be a SAHM if they could afford it, no matter what you think that says about equality.

And advertisers are always going to direct their marketing at the most lucrative markets. It's not on them to change society.

@oviraptor21 I had the choice; in fact, my wealthy first husband actively encouraged it. He felt emasculated by my working ultimately.
But it didn't sit with my feminist values and I am forever grateful I kept my career.