Quo Vadis: My mum's worth £1.5m: That's the official amount a woman could be paid to bring up a child

They are our personal cooks, cleaners and counsellors.

And thankfully their services are free - otherwise it would be the mother of all bills.

Multi-tasking mothers could make a cool £1.5million if they started billing their children for all the services they provide, according to research.

Parenting experts and professionals were asked to take into account all the jobs and duties the average mother carries out for her children from birth to 18.

Calculating the time spent on each service and converting it into how much it would cost for a professional to do it, experts worked out a grand total of £1,424,504.

The services these million pound mums provide include cooking, cleaning, washing, ironing and school runs, among countless others.

The research, which was carried out by Tesco Magazine and appears in their July/August magazine, was calculated on an hourly basis over an 18-year period.

To hire mum out as a chauffeur - be it for a school run, a date or a trip to the shops - kids would have to fork out up to £44,000, and that's before a tip.

Professionals from other industries also predicted that an average mother would spend 1,600 hours cleaning - valued around £14,000 - while 364 hours spent in the kitchen would cost more than £110,000 for your own personal chef.

And just for the benefit of her childminding skills, children would have to hand over around £600,000 - for 88,000 hours work.

MOTHER'S MILLIONS: KEY SERVICES OVER 18 YEARS

Cooking:                                     £111,186
Planning meals: £278,460
Childminding:                            £600,465
Hairdressing & styling:            £98,643
Nursing:                                    £5,232
Cleaning:                                      £13,702
Education tutoring:                  £28,860
Taxi driving:                                 £43,680
Laundry services:    £70,980
Music coaching:                       £21,300
Party planning/organising:    £910
Counselling:                                £62,400
Etiquette teaching:                    £81,900
PR & networking:                £6,786

Total: £1,424,504

Vital PR and networking skills - be it with schools, other mums or friends - could cost up to £7,000.

Need mum to nurse you back to health and not even a waiting list in sight? Simply cough up £5,232.

Tesco Magazine editor Maureen Rice said: 'I’m a mum myself, but even I was surprised by how much it would cost if we paid mums for their services.

'We do it for love, but I hope the million pound mums of Britain will feel an even greater sense of pride and appreciation when they see these figures.

Mum-of-two Maureen McLaughlin, 41, from Cheshire, is a part-time music teacher and full-time mum.

She said: 'Parenting is one of the most important jobs we do, so it doesn't entirely surprise me that when you put a value on all the tasks involved it comes to such a high amount.

'I think it is important to recognise the economic value of a mother's work, although I recognise that in most families, fathers also contribute to some of these tasks.

'Motherhood can be pleasurable and rewarding, but it can also be extremely demanding and frustrating at times.

'I hope that my contribution to my children will help them to become good citizens, able to live a happy and rewarding life and contribute to the country.'