Beyond childcare: Changes in the amount and types of parent‐child time over three decades

Abstract

Parents’ time with children has increased over the past several decades, according to many scholars. Yet, research predominantly focuses on childcare activities, overlooking the majority of time that parents spend with children. Using time diaries from the 1986–2015 Canadian General Social Survey, we examine trends in the quantity and distribution of parents’ childcare time and total co‐present time in the company of children, as well as the behavioral or compositional drivers of these trends. Co‐present time with children increased sharply since the mid‐1980s, by 1 hour per day for fathers and 1.5 hours for mothers. This rise was driven not only by childcare activities, but also parents’ time in housework and mothers’ time in leisure with children present. Decomposition analyses indicate that changes in parenting behavior primarily explain these increases in co‐present time. This study expands knowledge on intensive parenting through a more comprehensive understanding of parents’ daily lives with children.

Beyond mothers’ time in childcare: Worlds of care and connection in the early life course

“…Regularly, in time use research on parental time, gender inequalities, and child development, traditional measures of individual mothers' "childcare" as a primary activity is centered and understood as equating to all maternal time with children. Yet this is not the case by any means (Minnotte, 2023), as childcare activities represent only about one-third of mothers' time together with children (Wray et al, 2021). This results in an incomplete scholarly understanding of 1) the time needed to care for and supervise children, 2) who spends time with and cares for children, and 3) social patterns in that caregiving time (Folbre, 2022).…”

“…Though children can be cared for in a diversity of ways and by a diversity of others, a primary focus of scholars who use time diary data is on a narrow sphere of activities classified as “childcare” time, which includes parents directly and actively caring for children—such as feeding and bathing, and reading to, helping, teaching, or playing with children (Altintas, 2016; Cha and Park, 2021; Dotti Sani and Treas, 2016; Kalil et al, 2012). These activities of care are typical and central when children are very young, but less so when children are older (Milkie et al, 2021; Wray et al, 2021). Parents enjoy interactive forms of direct care (Dotti Sani, 2021), although notably studies show that other types of parent–child time together like meals and in leisure are rated highly by parents as well (Milkie et al, 2021; Musick et al, 2016).…”

Converging trends in developmental child care time by fathers' education? Comment on Cha and Park (2021)

“…Previous studies have been dedicated to identifying unique father involvement measures (Day & Lamb, 2003; Schoppe‐Sullivan & Fagan, 2020). Future research could consider the trends of educational disparities in father involvement using alternative measures other than developmental child care time (e.g., Wray et al, 2021). Another possibility is that fathers' involvement in child care is affected by factors different from those of mothers.…”

Childcare and housework during the first lockdown in Austria: Traditional division or new roles?

“…This Because of the nature of childcare, it is recognised as being difficult to measure and that retrospective measures are not ideal 18 (Fedick, Pacholok, & Gauthier 2005;Folbre & Yoon 2007). The largest part of childcare does not comprise focused, joint activities between parents and children (such as playing, feeding, reading, or dressing), but childcare that takes place while parents do other important activities or are not actively involved, but available to and responsible for nearby children (Wray et al 2021). When childcare is undefined (as in this study's questions), respondents will conceptualise childcare differently, which makes comparing their responses challenging.…”