Apparel rules the roost for discretionary dollars spent on children by their moms, according to Kids’ Share of Wallet, the most recent report from market research company The NPD Group.

According to the report, apparel pulls down 23% of discretionary spend, while almost half of every dollar (48%) goes towards purchasing goodies from entertainment-related categories such as toys & board games, leisure activities, books, music, movies, video games, consumer electronics, subscriptions and events/concerts.

Despite the recent hype surrounding childhood obesity in the US, the report finds that fast food and beverages still capture 12% of moms’ total discretionary spending on their kids. And it is not the household income that is the main factor in moms’ spending; the age of the child has more influence on how spending is allocated and how much is spent.

Moms who have kids older than five years of age spend approximately 35% more than moms with younger kids. The age of the child also has a strong influence on the categories of products capturing the greatest portion of total spending.

Gender does not impact the average amount spent by category, with two obvious exceptions: moms of girls spend more on apparel, while moms of boys spend more on video games.

A sizeable 59% of those surveyed reported that their kids have a strong influence on the purchases they make for them. The category least impacted by kids’ influence is apparel, whereas kids have the most say over video games purchases.

Television advertising still has the biggest effect on entertainment-related purchases such as toys and video games, and brand names were found to influence consumer electronics and footwear decisions, but were not a major factor for the other categories.

For a closer look at the study, its results and its methodology check out www.npd.com.