25 per cent of Brits spend less than £5 on their Dads for Father's Day, but only 10 per cent do the same for Mother's Day. Father's Day is generally assumed to be less important than Mother's Day and is regarded by retailers as the biggest day of the year after Christmas. A survey by retail data analyst company, Global Data, found that 48.7 per cent of people said they think Mother's Day is important, however only 37.6 per cent of people said the same for Father's Day. Additionally, the term 'Mother's Day' receives twice as many internet searches as Father's Day and 1 in 10 even forget to get their dad a card!
However, the day is certainly catching up in popularity, with the amount spent on fathers creeping up each year and many companies seizing in on marketing ploys and deals. British online retailer Onbuy.com was interested to find out how much people intend to spend on their fathers for Father's Day and what kind of gifts are the more popular choice. Onbuy.com conducted a survey of 625 Brits aged 16-30 asking what they buy for their fathers. A similar survey was also conducted, asking 482 fathers to reveal what their ideal gift would be for Father's Day.
The survey demonstrated that the average spend on fathers is £16.40. Sons spend slightly more on their fathers (£18.25) as opposed to daughters who spend £16.30. However, there was a wider variance in men's responses, i.e. more men spend the lowest amount (£0-5) and the highest amount (£50+). Some 60 per cent of those surveyed stated they spend more on Mother's Day than Father's Day, with 30 per cent stating they spend around the same amount on both.
However, is this as bad as it seems? The survey by Onbuy demonstrated that fathers put less value on material objects, and instead prefer experiences and spending quality time with their family. The most common gifts to buy fathers are food & drink (50%), clothing accessories (34%) and books/CD's/DVD's (26%). Although, the top three gifts fathers want are a day out with the family (38%), a meal out (30%) and a day to themselves (23%), followed by food & drink (20%) and tickets to an event (18%). Research has found that fathers are now spending seven times more time with their children than fathers in the '70s. This is due to changing attitudes towards the role of men and women and an increase in flexible working hours. However, 54 per cent of fathers with children feel they are not devoting enough quality time, whilst 42 per cent are unable to spend enough time with them.
