Working parents are clocking in long, unpaid hours—adding the equivalent of an extra workday every week—just to keep up with the demands of family life, according to a new survey.
A new survey conducted by Talker Research on behalf of Kiddie Academy, asked 2,000 people with children aged 0-6 about their everyday labor, both at work and in the home. They found that parents often do an average 17 hours of labor a day, combining their jobs and at home responsibilities. From managing a household to the demands of a career, these parents juggle multiple roles beyond their regular working hours.
Parents reported spending large chunks of their day on essential tasks: around two hours a day on household chores like cooking and cleaning, another two hours transporting their children to school, activities, and errands, and four hours directly caring for their children. This doesn’t leave much time for rest, as the average parent sleeps just six hours a night.
The Bureau of Labor Statistics has said that the majority of parents, 74 percent of mothers and 93.4 percent of fathers, are active in the workforce. But the survey found that it isn’t just parenting and household tasks keeping these parents busy as working parents reported working an average of two extra hours a day at their jobs. Over the course of a five-day workweek, this adds up to 10 extra unpaid hours.
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Brooke Sprowl, CEO and founder of My LA Therapy, has 15 years of experience in family therapy. She told Newsweek that parents are under a great deal of pressure in daily life. “The pressure on working parents today is profound, and it’s rooted in a fundamental mismatch between the conditions we evolved for and the demands of modern life,” she said.
It’s not just working parents who are feeling the pressure either. The survey found that non-working parents dedicate 17 hours a day to childcare and household responsibilities.
The survey also revealed the emotional toll this busy lifestyle takes on parents. An overwhelming 96 percent feel like they are always “on call” as parents, and finding personal time is a rare luxury. Parents reported getting an average of just 31 minutes of “me time” each day, while 15 percent admitted they never get any time for themselves at all.
Despite all these efforts, many parents still feel like they’re falling short. More than half (56 percent) expressed guilt over not spending enough time with their children. Some parents have even mentioned that schools add to this stress, particularly when meetings and expectations that clash with working parents’ schedules.
“For most of human history, we lived in small, tight-knit communities where child-rearing was a shared responsibility, supported by extended families and a strong social network,” Sprowl explained. “In today’s world we’ve become more fragmented. The structure of our society often leaves parents trying to be everything to everyone—breadwinners, caretakers, homemakers—without the community support systems that once shared the load. We are essentially asking parents to meet impossible standards.”
The survey was conducted by Talker Research and included 1,000 non-working and 1,000 working parents of children aged 0-6. It was commissioned by Kiddie Academy and carried out online between August 18 and August 26, 2024.
