Introducing The Month of Mom

The beginning of May marks a very important celebration for families across America: Mother’s Day on the second Sunday of the month. The National Retail Federation reports that families are expected to spend an average of $172.22 on Mother’s Day-related items this year, according to its 2016 Mother’s Day Spending Survey. Broken down into categories, the Federation said the majority of spending – $4.2 billion, to be exact – will happen on jewelry, with spending associated with special outings like dinner or brunch following a close second.

So we beg the question: what do you want for Mother’s Day? If the answer is jewelry, you’re likely to get what you want according to the spending survey. But, if all you want for Mother’s Day is more of that resource we never seem to have enough of – time – then, you’re in for a treat on the Family Essentials blog this month. Even though moms only get one day on the calendar, we know they deserve so much more. This May is the Month of Mom. For the next 31 days, we’ll be celebrating mothers. After all, we all have (or had) a mother and without her, we would not be here today.

This month, we appreciate mothers for all they’ve done and all they’ve seen us through. In the meantime, we’re sharing some hard and fast facts about mothers you should probably get to know:

• $62,985: Annual salary you would have to pay someone in 2015 to perform the tasks mothers do at home, according to calculation by Insure.com.
• 14: Hours per week the average mom spends cooking.
• 84.5 million: Total number of mothers in the U.S.
• 68: Percentage of people who plan on calling their mother on Mother’s Day — which equals about 122.5 million phone calls, more than any other Sunday throughout the year.
• 7,300: Average number of diaper changes a mom does by a baby’s second birthday.

Help us celebrate this month, even if you’re celebrating yourself, by reading along and using the #MonthofMom hashtag when you share your favorite articles with your friends.