All work and no play with children make moms less happy parents

https://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2016-10/uom-awa100416.php

Public Release: 4-Oct-2016
All work and no play with children make moms less happy parents
University of Minnesota

A team of researchers from Cornell University, the University of Minnesota, and Minnesota Population Center have used time diary data to find that mothers are less happy than fathers with their parenting duties. Mothers report more stress and greater fatigue than fathers. This experience gap is attributed to the differing tasks of each parent. The paper was recently published in the American Sociological Review.

"The good news from our study is that parents generally enjoy being with their kids," said University of Minnesota researcher Ann Meier, "but the bad news is that mothers enjoy it less than fathers because they do more of the 'work' and less of the 'fun' parenting tasks."

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The researchers found that not only do parenting activities between mothers and fathers differ, the environment surrounding the activity differs as well. Meier explained, "when mothers are with their kids, they are more often by themselves. When fathers are with their kids, they are more likely to have other adults around, offering some back-up. This helps us understand why fathers are less stressed when with kids."

Sleep also had an effect on parents' differing levels of happiness, said Meier. "Mothers are more likely than fathers to be called on by kids 'around the clock.' Fathers' sleep and down-time are less likely than mothers' to be interrupted by kids. This is part of the reason fathers are less tired than mothers when parenting."

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