Americans spend $10 billion more on Mother's Day than Father's Day. What's going on?
When it comes to honoring our parents on their special days, dads appear to be the big loser.
That's according to data from the National Retail Federation — specifically, its tracking of spending on Father's Day, which is this upcoming Sunday, and Mother's Day. This year, Americans are expected to shell out $24 billion on dad's holiday, whereas they spent $34.1 billion on mom's day last month, the NRF says.
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That's a gap of $10.1 billion. And the gap has only grown over the years, at least as measured in dollars. Consider: In 2016, Americans spent $7.4 billion more on mom versus dad, according to the NRF.
There may be no definitive reason as to why fathers lose out to mothers on their respective signature occasions — but that doesn't stop marketing, parenting and other experts from offering plenty of possible explanations.
Begin with the fact that moms are generally more revered for their familial contributions from a societal standpoint, observers say. Much of that has to do with the intrinsic nature of motherhood, as in the fact that moms who go through childbirth have to endure the physical challenges of such.
But even in an era when we keep hearing that parental roles are becoming more equal, studies still show that mothers bear the greater burden when it comes to housework and child-raising.
'Moms carry the emotional, mental and physical weight of parenting in most households. They're the primary parents; they're the daily grinders, the all-night pullers, the domestic glue,' said Nathaniel A. Turner, co-founder of the League of Extraordinary Parents, a support organization.
All of this translates into a desire to spend more on Mother's Day.
'Moms get planned-out splurges,' said Stephanie Carls, a retail-insights expert with the RetailMeNot online platform. She noted that can include everything from jewelry to a meal or flowers — or in some cases, all of the above.
By contrast, dad gifts are often an opportunistic, budget-minded buy, Carls said: think a small tool or grill accessory purchased at a home-improvement store, for example.
Turner echoed that point: Father's Day, he said, is 'still stuck in the shallow end of grills, golf balls and gimmicks because it does not move consumers enough to move the economic needle.'
He added that can be even more the case when consumers are feeling the financial pinch. And given inflation and other financial pressures in recent years, that may explain the growing spending gap between Father's Day and Mother's Day.
RetailMeNot's spending data, based on consumer surveys, also shows this sizable gap. This year, we're shelling out $232 on dad per shopper, but we allocated $360 for mom — a gap of $128, according to the platform. In 2024, the gap was considerably smaller, with $257 spent on dad versus $316 on mom — a $59 difference.
Restaurant owners are especially among those who are quick to pick up on the spending patterns. They say that Mother's Day is typically one of their busiest occasions of the year, next to Valentine's Day and New Year's Eve. By contrast, Father's Day is often not much busier than an average Sunday.
Babak Bina, founding partner of Boston-based BCB3 Hospitality, a company that operates several restaurants, said that doesn't mean that dads are getting slighted, however. As a father himself, he thinks that dads just don't consider Father's Day all that important.
'We're okay with doing a barbecue and calling it a day,' Bina said.
That's a view echoed by others. Brand strategist Reilly Newman said that men aren't necessarily into big social celebrations — they're as happy to celebrate Father's Day playing a round of golf on their own.
'Men are the lone wolves,' Newman said.
Finally, experts say you can't ignore the role that the calendar plays. Mother's Day falls during a time of year when we're still in a get-things-accomplished mode — schools haven't let out for the summer and we're not quite hitting the beach just yet. But Father's Day falls after Memorial Day when we're much more in a vacation mindset, which can make the holiday almost seem like a distraction.
Plus, we've already just spent all that money on Mother's Day, so we may feel a bit tapped out, experts noted.
That leads some to wonder how things might work if Father's Day was moved to a different time of year. At least that's what Melissa Murphy, a marketing professor at Carnegie Mellon University's Tepper School of Business, has to say.
'If the holidays were further apart, it would be more equal maybe,' Murphy observed.
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