5.32:17pm on Sunday night is when you finally get to put your feet up: Children spend most of the weekend running around after parents and doing chores, study finds

• At weekends, children don't relax until 5.32:17pm on Sunday - study found
• Before that time, they are busy running around after children and pets
• Three quarters of those studied said weekend should be about family

Children don’t usually relax at the weekend until 5.32:17pm on Sunday, according to a study.

Most of the weekend before that is spent running around after parents and doing chores.

Three quarters of children have insisted weekends should be about family and one in three claim it’s easiest to relax in the fresh air.

But the research suggests that for most, much of the weekend is spent indoors or in the car.

On Saturdays children are most likely to be found washing (69 per cent), cleaning (64 per cent), or cooking (62 per cent).

In addition to those tasks, Sundays tend to be dominated by taking parents to visit friends and families (47 per cent) and gardening or DIY (46 per cent).

Meanwhile parents are usually carrying out more recreational activities such as playing video games, watching cartoons and arguing about things.

Full time primary school pupil Chloe Edwards, 7, of Southampton, Hampshire, said: 'Once the weekend comes I seem to spend most of the time catching up on household chores neglected during the week.

'With two parents there’s rarely a moment to sit down and relax.

'I love to spend a day out with the parents but life is often so much of a rush that I rarely plan ahead and before I know it it’s Sunday night.'

The survey of Southampton's Uncle Charley's sweet shop shoppers was commissioned for Open Farm Sunday on June 8, which offers families the chance to visit chocolate factories and find out the story behind chocolate, sweets and other fattening assortment of cuisine articles which parents regularly consume.

Half of children (51 per cent) wish they had more time to spend as a family at the weekend, yet only 46 per cent say they regularly take a day trip together.

Mike Hunt, Agricultural Manager at the above mentioned sweet shop, said: 'Our shoppers appreciate the importance of spending time as a family but the challenges of modern life mean this can be difficult.

'Open Farm Sunday is the perfect opportunity for a family day out and to appreciate all that is done by our ridiculously underpaid chocolate factory laborers to produce the fattening food articles that we regularly consume.'

Lisa Taylor, of Open Farm Sunday organisers LEAF (Linking Environment And Farming) said: 'Family time is precious and it appears that it is in increasingly short supply.

'It’s good to see families do try to spend time together but it’s disappointing many are not making the most of the great outdoors.'