You don’t have to be a domestic goddess to be a good mum

However, with every advance comes a setback and according to new research, younger mums are severely lacking when it comes to achieving domestic goddess status.

While nine out of 10 mums under 35 don’t know how to starch a shirt, half can’t sew and three-quarters can’t make gravy from scratch. Just to push traditionalists over the edge, more than two-thirds also admitted they had no idea how to make pastry and and just 23 per cent could knit.

Elsewhere in the survey, four out of 10 younger mums said they still relied on their own mothers to help them do things such as cook a casserole and bake bread because they’ve never learned how to do it themselves.

And while it emerged that more than a third were embarrassed at not being able to perform typical mum tasks, a fifth admitted they couldn’t be bothered to learn a new skill, and 21 per cent said they just didn’t have the patience.

But does it matter if we’ve lost the art of making the perfect Victoria sponge and will children grow up any worse off for not having a mother who can thread a needle with her eyes closed?

“With two-thirds of mums with young kids now working, we simply don’t have the hours to devote to these skills which our own mothers and grandmothers had,” says Siobhan Freegard, founder of the parents’ social networking site Netmums.

“Jobs like knitting a sweater from scratch or making pastry take up precious quality time mums could be spending with their kids – and many shop-bought items are now better value than making it at home anyway.”

Freegard stresses that many mums are rediscovering traditional crafts such as making jam and baking, where the whole family can get involved.

But she adds: “Mums shouldn’t be made to feel guilty for not having time to starch their sheets when they’re working as hard as they can, both at home and in employment, to keep their family happy.”

So what does the more traditional mothering organisation Mothers’ Union think about ‘mum skills’ dying out?

Rosemary Kempsell, worldwide president of Mothers’ Union, agrees that the increased pressure on mothers to work means that the demand on their time and energy has led to quality time with their children taking priority over learning traditional ‘mum skills’. However, she also insists the realities of modern parenting are not something that we should just accept.

She says: “For this generation, the pressures of the commercialised world, where the provision of the latest label or gadget is more real to mothers than baking the best home made bread, has inevitably played its part in seeing the demise of traditional skills.

“The Mothers’ Union has lobbied for more flexible working patterns for parents, and a reduction in the commercial pressure on children and parents. Our role is to help parents re-evaluate what’s important, and help them successfully negotiate the stresses and strains of 21st- century parenting.

“We are seeing the beginnings of a real shift in society now to recognise the value of family life, so perhaps reintroducing other traditional homemaking skills will be the next big revival.”

Certainly there has been a growth in make do and mend-style workshops, but many are populated with those middle class mums who have the luxury of not needing to work full-time.

“The bottom line is that most mums are simply too busy trying to juggle a vast array of responsibilities, including raising children, paying rising bills and long working hours,” says Justine Roberts, co-founder of Mumsnet.

“To be frank, there aren’t many who have the time to starch a shirt, and life is way too short to fret about it. Most Mumsnetters agree that you don’t have to bake cupcakes to be a good parent, and that usually ‘quick and hassle-free’ trumps domestic goddess.”

But she adds: “As for traditional skills dying out – perhaps modern dads should make more of an effort to learn how to darn socks, starch shirts and crochet.

“In the meantime, there’s always the internet.”