We live in a time when the words "equality" and "equity" are everywhere, and parenting is no exception. There is talk of shared responsibilities, teamwork and active paternities. It would seem that we have reached an equitable balance between fathers and mothers about childcare and responsibilities at home. Or is not it?
A recent study done to couples where both work outside the home confirms what many of us already knew: Although parents are more involved, they continue to have longer periods of rest and relaxation, compared to mothers.
The study: parents relax more
Titled "New Parents Project", this new study set out to analyze how equitable the life of 52 couples really was, three months after becoming first-time parents. All participants they worked outside the home during the week.
The participants wrote a kind of diary of their activities in detail during a work day and a rest day, first during the first trimester of pregnancy and after three months of becoming parents.
During the working days after their babies were born, both fathers and mothers divided the work of the home and the care of their children in a more equitable way, compared to the days of rest.
On weekends, for example, men relaxed 46% of the time in which their partners were taking care of the baby. Women, on the other hand, relaxed only 16% of the time their partners were taking care of their children. Regarding household responsibilities, similar results were found: fathers rested 35% of the time their partners spent cleaning or tidying the house, while women only rested 19% of it.
In times, it was found that women spent 46 to 49 minutes relaxing or resting while men took care of the baby or home. For its part, the men spent resting twice as long as they: a total of 101 minutes.
"On work days, parents divide household responsibilities and parenting more evenly. All hands are needed to achieve it, but when there is more time available on the weekend and parents are not so pressured to have it all over, that's when we see gender and inequality patterns emerge, in which women do much more work at home and taking care of their children, while they rest"says Jill Yavorsky, one of the researchers of the study for Ohio State News.
Modern parenting: a teamwork
Currently, the care and upbringing of children is something that dad and mom get involved almost equally. And I say "almost" because although there are parents who are totally involved in every detail of their children's development, the weight or responsibility of parenting continues to fall on the mothers.
Some time ago I shared the results of a survey, in which modern parents talked about their fatherhood and how they felt about it. 40% of the parents surveyed said they would like to participate more in raising their children, but feel that their partner interferes with their participation, while 43% thought that their partner exercises too much parenting control.
It seems that Although modern parenting has become a teamwork by choice of the couple, mothers continue to dominate in the greatest decision making in everything related to our children. Of course, this of our own free will and because we want to do it, although unconsciously we do it by gender patterns as one of the researchers commented.
But perhaps, and returning to the results of that survey of current parents, we should release the reins of parenting a little and allow parents to become more involved. Likewise, parents should perhaps have more initiative when caring for or taking care of their children. Make it truly an equitable upbringing between the two, especially in the case that both father and mother work outside the home and study participants.
And well, although the results of this study have not revealed anything we did not imagine, yes It serves as a reminder that we still have to continue working as a team to ensure that the upbringing and responsibilities in the home are truly balanced - If we wish, of course, because each family is different.
