Motherhood is a lot of things.

It's fun and challenging and beautiful and messy and exhausting and rewarding and just crazy – all rolled up in one. And speaking of exhausting – according to a recent US study, mums work – are you ready – an average of 98 hours per week. Yup – that's right, mama. 98 flipping hours. Well, that explains your coffee addiction, if nothing else. According to Welch’s, who conducted the study on 2000 American mums with children aged between five and 12, the average mum gets going around 6:23 a.m. and the work doesn’t stop until 8:31 p.m. (Sounds about right?) “The results of the survey highlight just how demanding the role of mum can be and the non-stop barrage of tasks it consists of,” said Casey Lewis, MS, RD and Health and Nutrition Lead at Welch’s, told Yahoo! News. In fact, according to the survey, the average mum is lucky to get about an hour and seven minutes to herself each day, with four out of 10 of the mums surveyed saying their lives feel like never-ending series of tasks all week. We hear your, mamas. As par of the study, the mums were asked to list their go-to lifesaver – you know the little things that just help make motherhood that little bit easier. For instance, for me, it's my Nespresso machine – and Facetime – for when I need my own mum to give me a little pep-talk. As for the study, the top items on the sanity-saver list include baby wipes and wet wipes, iPads, kids’ TV shows, drive thru meals and coffee, Netflix and the help of grandparents and babysitters. “Busy mums may identify with the list of ‘lifesavers’, which highlights not just a rigorous workload but a constant requirement to feed and fuel the family, week in and week out,” said Lewis. 14-hour-days might sound all sorts of exhausting, mamas – and it is. But the thing is, for most of us, we are all some commited to the cause, to raising these little humans, that the extra time spent running around and wiping things down, in the end, it is all worth it. And in the meantime there is always coffee. Lots and lots of coffee.   (Feature image: Hatch Collection)