Sunday marks Mother's Day in the UK. To celebrate, check out list of world beating mums below, along with some record breaking Mother’s Day gift ideas – for everyone out there struggling for inspiration!
MOST PROLIFIC MOTHER
The greatest officially recorded number of children born to one mother is 69, to the wife of Feodor Vassilyev (b. 1707–c.1782), a peasant from Shuya, Russia. In 27 confinements she gave birth to 16 pairs of twins, seven sets of triplets and four sets of quadruplets. That’s a lot of Mother’s Day cards.
FIRST MOTHER AND SON TEAM TO ROW ANY OCEAN
Daniel Byles and his mother Jan Meek (both UK) became the first mother and son team to row any ocean when they rowed the Atlantic East to West, from Los Gigantes, Canary Islands to Barbados, West Indies, in Carpe Diem, between 12 October 1997 - 21 January 1998. And if that hasn’t made you feel inadequate as offspring… Daniel and Jan also became the FIRST MOTHER AND SON TEAM TO REACH A POLE (pictured above) when on 2 May 2007, they reached the magnetic North Pole (N 78° 35.724', W 104° 11.940') following a 24-day trek on foot and skis from Resolute Bay in Canada – a journey of around 560 km (350 miles). Cheers, Daniel.
MOST WOMEN’S TENNIS SINGLES GRAND SLAM TITLES WON BY A MOTHER
The most women’s singles Grand Slam titles won by a mother is three, by two players, Margaret Court (Australia) in 1973; and Kim Clijsters (Belgium) between 2009 and 2011.
MOST SETS OF TRIPLETS – SAME MOTHER
Maddalena Granata of Italy, gave birth to a whopping 15 sets of triplets between 1839 & 1886.
FIRST MOTHER-CHILD SUPERCENTENARIANS
Supercentenarians are people who have attained an age greater than 110. Mary P Romero Zielke Cota (USA, b.1870) died in 1982 aged 112 years 17 days; her daughter, Rosabell Zielke Champion Fenstermaker (USA, b. 1893), was equally long-lived and died in 2005 aged 111 years 344 days.
And here are some record-breaking versions of Mother’s Day gifts we all know and love:
LARGEST GREETING CARD
We hope you have enough postage.
This Mother's Day card claimed the record for largest greeting card on 21 March last year. Measuring 10.19 m in length and 7.09 m in width, the card was built and presented by Nestlé Middle East FZE - NIDO at Dubai Mall in Dubai.
LARGEST BOX OF CHOCOLATES
You probably won't find this one in the shops. Thorntons Moments unveiled the largest box of chocolates in London on April 2, 2008. The box itself measured 5.04 m (16 ft 6 in) long, 3.4 m (11 ft 2 in) wide and 1 m (3 ft 3.5 in) deep, with a record-breaking weight of 3,275 lb (1,690 kg)
Or maybe the largest bouquet suits Mom better. Constructed by the NordWestZentrum shopping mall in Frankfurt, Germany, on Sept. 29, 2005, this arrangement of all-natural flowers consisted of 156,940 multi-coloured roses. A little more daunting than the dozen long-stems you're more likely to find, the bouquet measured 26 m (85 ft 3 in) long by 6 m (19 ft 8 in) wide and 3 m (9 ft 10 in) tall. All those flowers weighed more than 10.3 tonnes!
And if you’re strapped for cash this year…
