Almost half of Irish parents want to spend more quality time with their family and admit that the stresses of modern life are an increasing barrier to spending time together.
A survey commissioned by Tesco Ireland has revealed that almost half of parents find it difficult to get their wider family together. The majority of parents (82%) blame “busier lives” for not allowing family members to get together more, while two thirds of adults (66%) believe precious family time is more difficult nowadays than it was in the past.
While almost three quarters (74%) of Irish families’ gather at daily meal times, getting the wider family circle together is more of a challenge for most half of Irish parents (48%). However, 100% of the older adult (55+) population overwhelmingly recognise that the upcoming Easter holidays are a good opportunity to spend time together. In fact, grandparents are by far the biggest consumer group to embrace the occasion where they buy Easter eggs not for themselves but for their family, particularly their grandchildren. Awww.
Traditional values like visiting grandparents stood out as the leading childhood family bonding activity (63%) with 18-34 year-olds and older respondents in agreement that regular baking with your mother or grandmother formed a special part of their childhood memories (49% and 65% respectively). This was echoed further in the 55+ women age cohort who revealed that baking with their children was their favoured family-based activity, with the majority of bakers using traditional ‘back to basic’ methods using scratch ingredients to educate their children on the art of baking.
Only one third (32%) of men take the time to bake with their own children and see it more of a necessity and only bake when they need to for a kids bake sale or school activity (20%).
In the lead up to Easter, recognised by almost six out of every ten Irish parents (58%) as a special family time, Tesco is asking families to visit stores and support their Great Irish Bake for Temple Street on April 7th. They aim to raise €100,000 for their charity partner across all of their 148 stores throughout Ireland across a bumper weekend of fun activities in-store. So c’mon mums and dads – grab your pinnies and support a worthy cause.
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