The financial risk to a family of the death of a stay-at-home mother has been put at £29,812 a year by SunLife.
The insurer has highlighted that only one third of stay at home mothers are covered by such insurance.
The research shows on average, mums spend 56 hours and 36 minutes cooking, cleaning, being a taxi driver and generally tending to the needs of their children.
SunLife has worked out the value of these tasks by using the average salaries for the jobs these tasks are most like (teacher, cleaner, taxi driver etc).
SunLife protection director Mark Jones, said it a common misconception that as a stay at home parent does not earn a salary they do not need insurance.
Mr Jones said: “A stay-at-home mum or dad makes a huge contribution, and any family would be affected both practically and financially if you passed away unexpectedly."
SunLife has found that mothers who do have life insurance are covered for £120,437 on average, dropping to £106,152 for stay at home mums.
Mr Jones said while this would cover the average outstanding mortgage of £85,000 and average household debt of £8,000 it does not factor in the average value of stay at home mothers of £29,812.
He added it is common for parents with a young family to choose term life insurance for 10 to 20 years to last until the children have left home and are financially secure.
SunLife has created a calculator to help individuals work out the value of a stay at home mother - https://www.sunlife.co.uk/life-cover/life-insurance/mum-salary/
