Time pressures among parents with preschoolers

The three findings in Milkie et al and Hochschild studies that have almost similar results are in the area of time in leisure, time pressures among parents with preschoolers, and parent’s interactions with children.  Milkie posited that in households where both parents are working fulltime, it is the mother who have less leisure time compared to the father.   This is consistent with Hochschild’s report that reported that mothers who have full time job are less likely to enjoy leisure time with their children.  The same is the case with time pressure as mothers who are working fulltime are always time-pressed and always feel to be in a rushed compared to father where Hochschild agreed with Milkie that fathers are with working wives actually “do little more at home than husbands of housewives” (Milkie, Raley, & Bianchi, 2009 pg. 195).  In the area of interactions of their child, the study of Milkie reported that working mothers laugh less often with their children (p < .05) and complained that they have “too little” time with their children.  This is supported by Hochschild who argued that in aa culture and family set-up where the mother had to work full-time, its consequence usually is to “cut back” on the child (Hochschild & Machung, 2012).

In short, the studies of Milkie et al and Hochschild concluded that when mother’s work fulltime, they feel more stressed, has lesser leisure time with their children and is less satisfied with how they aare doing with their children.  These studies only validated the common notion that if the parents aare busy, especially the mother, there is a tendency that there will be little time that will be given to the children.  But as the study reveals, the fathers are doing less so they should help the mother beaause parenting after all is a shared responsibility.