Parents spend twice as much time with their kids than they did in the 1960s
In 2012 the average mother spent 104 minutes caring for their children Image: REUTERS/Luke MacGregor
Get involved with our crowdsourced digital platform to deliver impact at scale
Stay up to date:
Youth Perspectives
Parents in middle-class families are spending twice as much time with their children than they did nearly 50 years ago.
According to research looking at 11 wealthy countries published in the Journal of Marriage and Family, the average mother in 2012 spent 104 minutes a day caring for her children. Compare this to 1965 when the daily average was just 54 minutes.
While The Economist's charts suggests that men still do less than women, things have improved: an average father in 1965 spent just 16 minutes a day tending to their children; by 2012 this had risen to 59 minutes.
But the figures also suggest a growing gap between working and middle-class families, in particular, between mothers with a university education and those without. While in 1965 both sets of mothers devoted roughly the same amount of time to looking after their children, in 2012 mothers with a university education – except those in France – were spending 30 minutes more on childcare a day.
Read the full Economist article here (paywall).
Don't miss any update on this topic
Create a free account and access your personalized content collection with our latest publications and analyses.
License and Republishing
World Economic Forum articles may be republished in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International Public License, and in accordance with our Terms of Use.
The views expressed in this article are those of the author alone and not the World Economic Forum.
Related topics:
The Agenda Weekly
A weekly update of the most important issues driving the global agenda
You can unsubscribe at any time using the link in our emails. For more details, review our privacy policy.
More on Youth PerspectivesSee all
Madeleine North
August 29, 2024
Rebecca Geldard
July 31, 2024
Natalie Pierce and Maria Sol Adaime Gabris
July 11, 2024
Natalie Pierce
July 10, 2024
Teemu Alexander Puutio
June 7, 2024