New York, NY, May 8, 2007 - A new iVillage survey revealed, among other things, that mothers found it nearly twice as difficult to teach their children about financial discipline than about the birds and the bees, that modern women feel more connected to their friends than to their own children, and that half of women agreed that stay-at-home moms and working moms have a difficult time relating to one another.

iVillage, the largest community of women online, is the authority on all things female, from beauty and style to health and parenting to entertainment and food. This new national survey examining motherhood, conducted for iVillage by GfK Roper Public Affairs & Media, revealed:

Women Feeling Connected
  • More women (75%) felt a strong connection to their friends than to their own children (70%). Furthermore, only 64% surveyed said they felt very connected to their spouse/partner.
Moms and Friendship
  • When it comes to friendships, the majority of mothers (85%) tend to have more friends with children than without. Fifty percent of women said that stay-at-home moms and working moms have a difficult time relating to one another.
A Mom's Job
  • 80% of women disagree that stay-at-home moms have it easier than working moms. That being said, 61% of mothers felt that if money were not a factor, it was best for mothers to stay at home if they had children under 5 years old.
  • Mothers found it nearly twice as difficult to teach their children about financial discipline than about the birds and the bees. Moms also felt that religion/spirituality was the easiest value to teach their children (64%), easier than "the value of" education (62%), morality (52%) and healthy living (46%).
Modern Moms Vs. Moms of the Previous Generation
  • 61% of moms with children under 18 say they spend more time with their children than their mothers did. Even so, 79% of women say working moms still feel guilty about not staying home with their children.
  • 74% of women disagree that today's mothers have it easier than previous generations despite the popularity of work-life balance programs in companies around the country and the technology that allows families to stay closely connected.
Women vs. Men
  • 70% of women say they feel very connected to their children, while only 58% of men say they feel very connected to their children.

iVillage Inc., a division of NBC Universal, is the first and largest media company dedicated exclusively to connecting women at every stage of their lives. Ranked the #1 online destination for women with 16 million unique visitors (comScore MediaMetrix), iVillage.com offers an authentic community infused with compelling content from experts on health, parenting, pregnancy, beauty, style, fitness, relationships, food and entertainment. The site's interactive features include thousands of message boards and a wide variety of social networking tools, allowing women around the world to connect, share ideas, and seek advice and support about everything from fertility to fashion.

Established in 1995, iVillage's brand extensions include iVillage UK, iVillage Total Health and owned sites Astrology.com, GardenWeb and gURL.com, in addition to the Newborn Channel. The company, acquired by NBC Universal in May 2006, is based in New York.

About the poll

The results contained in this report are based on telephone interviews conducted from April 20-22, 2007. A total of 1,011 interviews were completed, with 533 female adults and 478 male adults. The margin of error for this study is +/- 3 percentage points and is higher for subgroups.