Put down the flowers and hand her a wrench?
Craftsman, the tool company, topped the ranks for mothers in a new survey that graded 1,100 brands.
The survey involved 6,000 mothers of children under age 18 who rated their favourite companies based on criteria that included reputation, the quality and value of their products and the women's own "willingness to recommend."
And although power tools for her on Mother's Day ring with the brilliance of Homer Simpson, Craftsman came in first, with Black & Decker taking the fifth spot.
"Home repair and maintenance has not been the sole province of men for a while," Ted Marzilli, chief executive officer of brand-tracking firm YouGov BrandIndex, said in a release announcing the survey this Mother's Day. "The weak economy has made everybody a do-it-yourselfer to save money. Given these results, it seems out of touch to portray doing the handiwork around a house as a man's job."
Other brands in the top 10 included Amazon, Google and Discovery Channel, as well as Cheerios and Dawn, according to the survey, conducted between April 5 and May 5.
As women purportedly pick up the tool belt, we're reminded how gender roles are shifting on the domestic front. But does it mean women are simply taking on yet more at home? Or swapping with hubby for the dusting and laundry?
Unlikely: While men are jumping into childcare, grocery shopping and cooking (thank you, Gordon Ramsay), women are still largely relegated to doing much of the cleaning – the boring, daily domestic grind – according to the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development.
So hand Mrs. Fix It a wrench, and a trip for one to the spa?
Zosia Bielski