Modern Moms: More TV, Less Housework

Modern moms are watching television more than ever and have become less involved in household work, a recent study finds.

Researchers from the University of South Carolina suggests U.S moms are less active than they once were and usual household activities like cooking and cleaning have been replaced by television watching. Edward Archer, lead author of the study found that in 2010, women spent 25 percent more of their time engaged in leisure activities than cooking and cleaning. This results to more and more Americans being classified as obese.

The study, published in the medical journal Mayo Clinic compared mothers with kids between ages five and 18 in 1965, and found that moms with kids of those ages in 2010 spent on average 11 fewer hours weekly engaged in physical activity. Those same women spent seven more hours a week in a sedentary activity like surfing the web or watching television. Likely, moms of children below five years old have dropped about 14 hours of physical activity from their weekly schedule but increased their sedentary time by approximately six hours weekly.

"With each passing generation, mothers have become increasingly physically inactive, sedentary and obese, thereby potentially predisposing children to have increased risk of inactivity, adiposity and chronic non-communicable diseases. Given that physical activity is an absolute prerequisite for health and wellness, it is not surprising that inactivity is now a leading cause of death and disease in developed nations," Archer said. The data of the study was derived from the American Heritage Time Use Study database, which comprises more than 50,000 diary days between 1965 and 2010.