More Coming on What the Heck Dads Do All Day
Posted on 13. Jun, 2008 by Brian Reid in General
I get the feeling we’ll be talking more about division of labor in the household once I’m through digesting Lisa Belkin’s exhaustive NYT Magazine piece on that looks at equally shared parenting (particularly as practiced by frequent commenters Marc and Amy), but while we’re all digesting the magazine article, I thought I’d throw this press release snippet from the Council for Contemporary Families out there for everyone to chew on:
Dads are stepping up in new ways too. Men have steadily increased their participation in housework and child care over the past 30 years. And contrary to claims of some earlier studies, dads who work less than full-time don’t use their extra time just to watch TV. Part-time worker dads do more housework (about an hour more) than full-time worker dads, and about 40 minutes more childcare. We know about these changes thanks to forthcoming work from Liana Sayer (Ohio State University) and Sanjiv Gupta (University of Massachusetts at Amherst) in which they analyzed the 2003-2005 ATUS.
(Whatever your feelings on the data, the real take-away is that this information comes from a governmental survey that may be on the chopping block. It really would be a shame if it were to disappear.)
Kevin Grossman
13. Jun, 2008
I’m glad to see those stats on the rise. I’ve been participating since I was 5.
Lone Star Ma
13. Jun, 2008
Yay, you. What good parents you must have.
It would be a shame for those stats to disappear.
Christine
14. Jun, 2008
Uh… those stats don’t encourage me at all. Part-time work is much more than an hour or 40 minutes more of free time – unless that’s an hour or 40 minutes A DAY?
Katherine
16. Jun, 2008
There were so many parts of that NYT article that rang true with me. I was raised on the gospel of gender-neutrality, but becoming a parent made me believe there are innate gender differences. Plus, I don’t know that I’d want to split everything with my husband down the middle, rigidly, and I hope that doesn’t mean I’m a gatekeeper mom!