Jamie and Jools Oliver and their brood have been named the family to which most parents of young children aspire, ahead of the Obamas and Beckhams.

A third of those who took part in the survey for broadcaster Nick Jr said they wanted to be more like the Channel 4 chef and his model wife.

A total of 11 per cent said they wanted their family to be more like Barack Obama’s, while 8 per cent plumped for a family situation like that of Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt.

The research — to launch the channel’s new block of pre-school programmes ‘Wake Up World’, which began this week featuring shows such as ‘Dora The Explorer’ and ‘Peppa Pig’ — also found only a small proportion of families eat breakfast together.

Seven in 10 families said they eat dinner as a family at least once a week, but only three in 10 manage their morning meal as a group.

Half of the parents of two to five-year-olds admitted getting out of the house on time was the most difficult part of the morning.

• CLIPPED FROM: ‘Olivers most popular role models‘, Yahoo! News, 2009-10-06