Working parents & the modern family

Children are much more likely than not to grow up in a household in which their parents work, and in nearly half of all two-parent families today, both parents work full time, a sharp increase from previous decades.

The New York Times have published an aritcle on working parents feeling stressed, tired, rushed and short on quality time with their children, friends, partners or hobbies, according to a new US Pew Research Center survey.

The data are the latest to show that while family structure seems to have permanently changed, public policy, workplace structure and mores have not seemed to adjust to a norm in which both parents work.

Of full-time working parents, 39% of mothers and 50% of fathers say they feel as if they spend too little time with their children. 59% of full-time working mothers say they don’t have enough leisure time, and more than half of working fathers say the same.

In 46% of all two-parent households, both parents work full-time, according to Pew, up from 31% in 1970. The share of households with a mother who stays home has declined to 26% from 46%. Pew surveyed a nationally representative sample of 1,807 parents in every state on both landlines and cellphones.

Other data also show that working parents are the new norm. 60% of children now live in households where all the parents at home work at least part time, up from 40% in 1965, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics and the White House Council of Economic Advisers.

41% of working mothers said being a parent made it harder to advance in their careers, compared with 20% of fathers.

Read the full article here: http://goo.gl/q36D2e