This year's summer holidays are dubbed the 'Daddydays' by Brits as Sainsbury's latest research shows that today's children are twice as likely to be looked after by their dads over the summer holidays compared to children of the sixties. Baking beats football as the top activity dads are most likely to entertain their kids with during the summer.

A survey of 2,000 parents reveals that almost half of dads (42%) now take equal responsibility for childcare over the summer holidays in 2014; this is in comparison to when they were young as just 23% of parents state their dad looked after them in the summer.

The research, commissioned by Sainsbury's to celebrate its Summer Sorted campaign that aims to help families get the most out of their summer holidays, reveals that cooking and baking (34%) is more popular than football (31%) with dads this summer when choosing how to occupy the kids. The list of top ten activities that dads are most likely to entertain their children with contrasts to the holidays of yester year as fathers reveal that during their summer breaks as a child they remember playing football the most (26%) followed closely by visiting their grandparents' house (24%).

As more men than ever embrace baking in 2014 - half of this year's contestants in the Great British Bake Off are male - more than a third of dads cite that cooking and baking is both fun and budget friendly. 27% of fathers say that it allows them to teach their children about nutrition in an enjoyable way and 28% think it keeps kids occupied for hours.

Half of British dads think that summer is a time when they really get to bond with the kids over any other time of year (48%) so they focus on entertaining activities (58%) over educational ones (24%). Kids love spending time with dad too - two thirds of them think dad lets them get away with things that mum doesn't.

The top ten activities dads are likely to entertain their children with this summer
  1. Cook and bake with the kids (34%)
  2. Play football (31%)
  3. Visit the grandparents' house (30%)
  4. Go for a bike ride (27%)
  5. Have a picnic (24%)
  6. Play with water pistols (22%)
  7. Have a family barbecue (22%)
  8. Play with loom bands (22%)
  9. Spend the day at the nearest beach (21%)
  10. Colouring (20%)
The top ten activities dads remember doing with their parents over the summer holidays when they were a child
  1. Play football (26%)
  2. Visit the grandparents' house (24%)
  3. Cook and bake with the kids (23%)
  4. Go for a bike ride (22%)
  5. Play with water pistols (17%)
  6. Arts and crafts (17%)
  7. Have a picnic (16%)
  8. Play street games (15%)
  9. Go to the cinema (14%)
  10. Spend the day at the nearest beach (13%)

Father of two, Desmond Smith, one of the three Food Lovers fronting Sainsbury's Summer Sorted campaign adds: "As the sole one in charge of my two boys over the summer holidays, six weeks alone with the kids can be a daunting prospect! I've found the key to successful 'Daddydays' is combining days out with days at home. I try to involve my sons Oliver (10) and Felix (6) in everything from helping me cook meals (asking them to prepare veg is a crafty way of getting them to eat it) to preparing healthy snacks so that the days at home are often much more fun than the days out."

Sarah Warby, Marketing Director at Sainsbury's said: "We know that the summer holidays can be both fun and challenging for parents who are constantly looking for ways to keep their children entertained, whilst sticking to a budget.  Our Summer Sorted campaign offers help and guidance to cope with those extra meals and fun mealtime solutions that involve the whole family.  We have chosen real people to play the starring roles in this campaign simply because our customers want advice and help from people who they can relate to and offer achievable ideas which can be recreated at home."

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