Surprising Facts About Modern Mothers

The Modern Mother Spends More Time With Her Kids

On average, both mothers and fathers are spending more time directly interacting with their children now than they did in 1965. Fathers have almost tripled their time spent with children, but a large gender gap still remains (7.3 hours a week for fathers versus 13.5 hours a week for mothers). Between spending more time with their children and more time working a paid job, where does the modern mother find all this time? One clue may be the changing roles concerning housework. Due to cheaper and more efficient technology, as well as increasing participation from other family members, the average amount of time mothers spend doing housework has gone down from 32 hours a week in 1965 to 18 hours in 2011.

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Review Date: 
May 9, 2014

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Last Updated:
July 1, 2014