Working moms 'spend 81 mins a day looking after kids'

On the contrary, stay-at-home mothers managed almost twice as much time directly caring for their children, with 2 hours 35 minutes dedicated to activities like meals, bathtime and playing games, the study found.

The study by Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, which compared surveys in 21 leading nations found that the time UK working mothers spent caring for their children was almost half that in some other countries.

Those in Ireland spent 150 minutes a day caring for their children, while those in Australia managed 137 minutes, with working mothers in the US, Canada, Italy, Sweden and Spain all spending more time looking after their children than those in Britain, 'The Daily Telegraph' reported.

The study examined how much time parents spent involved in childcare like meals, dressing, playing, and reading bedtime stories to children, and excluding time when the parent's main focus was on another task.

Of all parents, fathers with jobs spent the least time on such care -- just 43 minutes a day, it found.

Even when they did not work, fathers spent less time than mothers looking after their offspring -- on average just 63 minutes a day -- 18 minutes less than a mother who goes out to work, according to the study.

The statistics for Britain included time spent with children at weekend -- meaning that on working days, the average amount of time parents spent caring for their children was even less.