While the gender gap in time spent on household chores is slowly declining, ideas about women as the primary caretaker of the home and caregiver for the children is still very present. These ideas in turn influence how men and women feel about parenting. A recent Huffington Post article features a new study that found mothers report more stress and fatigue than fathers. The researchers attribute this to the division of parenting tasks — married mothers are more likely to mange basic childcare tasks and are more likely to be alone with children, while married fathers are more often in charge of children’s play and leisure activities. Moreover, even when moms have leisure time, they are more likely to be interrupted or to report multitasking during this time.
According to sociologist Ann Meier,
“Having data systematically collected from thousands of parents allows us to confirm what parents have known for years — that parenting is meaningful but also stressful and tiring. Many mothers will recognize their experiences of interrupted sleep and daily feeding and bathing. Hopefully, many dads will see that their partners will likely be happier if they trade some of their leisure time with kids for more of the ‘work’ of parenting.”
Comments 1
Christa Fills — April 6, 2020
Yes, this is correct. In general, it seems to me that the best situation when responsibilities in the family are divided equally. When father also understands how much mother does. If a woman does more, she becomes more tired. Then she will have absolutely no time for herself and for the satisfaction of her husband. It's the same with a husband if he is sitting with his child at home, and his wife is working. In such cases, scandals often arise on this basis (I'm a psychologist, and in my practice there were many such pairs). If you feel your marriage is coming to an end, you might want to try to rectify the situation before file for divorce. If you cannot solve this in a couple, joing a psychologist to this.