Excellent NY Times article which sheds light on how families and single parents are continuing to spend time with kids in spite of women working more and individual parental workload increasing (see chart along the left side). Although not all families have two parents, it would have been interesting to see total parental workload depicted. By adding the breakdowns for mother and father together, it appears as if (from 1965 to 2000) total parental workload has increased, total housekeeping has gone down, and total time spent with kids has gone up. It is interesting to note that average father’s housework time has increased. It also interesting to note that average paid work time for fathers has gone down (Note: this latter item is not one that I would have suspected).
Professor of Practice of Behavioral Economics