Housewives or Mousewives

Women have so integrated the Internet into their families' lives, it's become another domestic appliance according to a recent study that shows 'Mousewives' drive the Net revolution.

It shows that half of all women who go online have moved the home PC into the living room so it can play a central role in family life.

Two-thirds of women now research their families' health online, it says, while one third have replaced Watch with Mother with Surf with Mother as they accompany their children online to do homework or play.

Women with a computer in the household also turn out to be 'all-hours' users, with half logging on before breakfast and a fifth getting up in the middle of the night to access the internet. The main reasons cited are that the PC is becoming the social hub for gossip with family and friends as well as a means of bargain hunting, without leaving the living room.

Punishment has also changed, the research has found. Removing internet privileges for children is becoming commonplace as e-grounding replaces more traditional chastisements for bad behaviour.