Traditional household skills – like making pastry, baking and sewing buttons – are dying out, because modern moms are too busy to learn them.

Millions of mothers struggle with a string of skills their own moms would have carried out with ease, according to recent research.

Knitting, baking cakes, making jam and altering clothes also made the list of tasks that many moms just don't know how to do.

The study also found most modern moms wished they had the skills their own mothers had but said they didn't have the time or patience to learn them.

Nine out of 10 younger moms don't know how to starch a shirt, while more than half struggle to sew name tags in their children’s clothes.

Three quarters couldn’t make gravy from scratch, while nearly half couldn’t rustle up a Victoria sponge.

The research was commissioned by Neff, an oven brand in the UK, as part of their Bake It Yourself campaign.

Encouraging the nation to get baking, the research was compiled following a study of 1000 moms under 35 and 1000 moms over 45.

"We know that modern moms are under different pressures today compared with 40 years ago," Sue Flowers, Brand Manager for Neff.

"As a result, many moms find it difficult to do some of the daily tasks their own moms may have done. However, our research has shown that many do want to learn how to do these things and feel as passionate as we do about ensuring skills such as baking and sewing don’t die out.

"Moms from previous generations learnt how to do these everyday tasks from their moms and their moms before them.

"Despite not necessarily having the know-how, many mothers today are taking a real interest in learning traditional skills to help with their daily life or to enjoy as a hobby."

The study also found that nearly half of young moms said they made more of an effort to learn traditional ‘mom’ skills after their children were born.

But despite this less than one third could make pastry from scratch, less than half could sew and less than one quarter could knit.

A whopping 80 percent of younger moms said they wanted to know how to keep their shirts white and 82 percent wanted to be able to alter clothes.

Only 16 percent of young moms felt confident that they could make a fancy dress costume for their child and only 18 percent could make jam.

By comparison, more than a third of moms over 45 could make a costume while 43 percent could make jam.

Moms still rely on their own

Four out of 10 young moms still rely on their own mum to help them do things like cook a casserole and bake bread because they have never learnt how to do them.

"We all like to rely on our mom for help and advice, which is why it’s such a shame that younger moms today find themselves too busy to enjoy time spent baking with their children and other traditional tasks," added Flowers.

"What's really encouraging is how so many moms want to do something about this.

"In fact, just under half of all younger moms questioned said they had either been on – or were considering – taking a cookery course to help them become a baker or cook."

More than a third were embarrassed at not being able to do typical "mom" tasks, while a fifth said they couldn't be bothered to sit down and learn a new skill and 22 percent said they just didn't have the patience.

Young moms were also more likely to try and pass off shop bought products like cakes and sauces as their own with 34 percent admitting to taking credit for something they bought.

More than two thirds said that they intended to pass the skills they did have on to their own children while more than a fifth said they considered most of the skills unnecessary in the modern age.