We know things are tough for Asda mums - Asda COO Judith McKenna

Asda Chief Operating Officer Judith McKenna writes:

Our Asda Mums are the barometer of how families feel about the state of their finances, and those of the UK as a whole – and they’re telling us loud and clear that things are tough. We’ve been busy talking to mums since our first update in February, gathering information on their family life and how they’re balancing the household books.

Our latest research finds that far from seeing the green shoots we had all hoped for by now, for our Asda Mums at least, things just keep getting tougher. When we launched in February our Mumdex optimism figure was already below zero at -8%; our latest wave of research sees this drop to a fairly bleak -16% The downturn in optimism is driven by falling confidence in household finances, the future of their family’s quality of life and community spirit, with the biggest drop in confidence occurring in mums’ optimism about the future of their family’s quality of life, which has fallen from 23% to 6% over the quarter to May.

Kids face an uncertain future

Asda Mums tell us it’s not just the future that they’re worried about, there are also more immediate concerns about the here and now. The current economic climate means the hardest challenge for mums is often simply meeting the financial cost of bringing up children.

Those of us with children know that every parent wants to give their child the best opportunities to reach their full potential – each generation hopes the next will have a better quality of life than their own. Asda Mums fear, however, that the economic situation means opportunities for this generation are stalling, and they worry their kids face an uncertain future.

Through the Asda Mumdex we continue to listen to our Asda Mums, to understand their needs and to support them in the things that really matter day-to-day.