Academic Journal
Main Category: Women's Health / Gynecology
Also Included In: Men's health; Anxiety / Stress; Psychology / Psychiatry
Article Date: 04 Dec 2011 - 0:00 PST
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American mothers are multitasking for 48.3 hours each week, compared to 38.9 hours working fathers put in, researchers from Michigan State University reported in American Sociological Review. They add that women find multitasking a negative experience, compared to fathers who say that for them the experience is a positive one.
Co-investigator, Professor Barbara Schneider said:
"This suggests that working mothers are doing two activities at once more than two-fifths of the time they are awake, while working fathers are multitasking more than a third of their waking hours."
Lead author, Shira Offer, said:
"For mothers, multitasking is - on the whole - a negative experience, whereas it is not for fathers. Only mothers report negative emotions and feeling stressed and conflicted when they multitask at home and in public settings. By contrast, multitasking in these contexts is a positive experience for fathers."
The researchers gathered data from the 500 Family Study, which focused on how middle-class households balance work and family experiences. Data was collected from 1999 to 2000 on families from eight US communities - in both urban and suburban areas. The Offer-Schneider study used a randomly selected sub-sample, consisting of 241 fathers and 368 mothers - they were all double-income households.
52.7% of the mothers' multitasking episodes that occurred at home involved housework, versus 42.2% for the fathers' - more specifically, 35.5% of the mothers' home-based multitasking involved childcare, compared to 27.9% for the fathers.
As the mothers' activities are scrutinized more frequently by outsiders, particularly when it occurs at home or in public view, the authors believe this is why they tend to view such chores as a more negative experience.
Schneider said:
"At home and in public are the environments in which most household- and childcare-related tasks take place, and mothers' activities in these settings are highly visible to other people. Therefore, their ability to fulfill their role as good mothers can be easily judged and criticized when they multitask in these contexts, making it a more stressful and negative experience for them than for fathers."
A working father does not usually have to put up with these kinds of pressures, they added.
The answer is a simple one, the authors wrote. Fathers need to help out more. They added that employers and policymakers can help make this happen.
Fathers need to help out more, the authors say
Offers said:
"Policymakers and employers should think about how to alter current workplace cultures, which constitute serious obstacles when it comes to getting fathers more involved in their families and homes."For example, I think that fathers should have more opportunities to leave work early or start work late, so they can participate in important family routines; to take time off for family events; and to limit the amount of work they bring home, so they can pay undivided attention to their children and spouse during the evening hours and on weekends.
The goal is to initiate a process that will alter fathers' personal preferences and priorities and eventually lead to more egalitarian norms regarding mothers' and fathers' parenting roles."
Written by Christian Nordqvist
Copyright: Medical News Today
Not to be reproduced without permission of Medical News Today
posted by anne mcdonald on 3 Dec 2011 at 1:22 pm
Perhaps it might be a good idea for fathers and mothers to work out the dual work issues BEFORE they have children. The problems they would discuss might prevent their resentment after the kids arrive. Or not arrive depending on what they decide.
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posted by Stephanie on 3 Dec 2011 at 2:16 pm
Unfortunately all the planning and "issue working" can never prepare for the true reality of having children. It's rare to find a husband these days who won't say that he'll be a 50-50 participant in the childcare/work dutites before the children are born. I'd venture to say that constrasts sharply with what really happens once the children get here.
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posted by Dave on 3 Dec 2011 at 3:31 pm
Articles like this always sound biased. I'm a father and married. I'm not against doing anything that my wife does, however, in our society, there will always be gender roles that cannot be broken. The stress a mother feels in public has nothing to do with the husband and more to do with perception and ability to cope rather than just stress.
The part about employers giving more wiggle room for fathers to go to work late or leave early is biased as well. This portion of the article assumes that fathers cannot do these things when, in reality, the law treats both men and women equally here (at least on paper) however, in reality, I understand it's much different.
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posted by Kim Bennett on 3 Dec 2011 at 3:36 pm
The study and article doesn't discuss the productivity level of each mother and father. The mother, in addition to longer multi tasking hours, may also be "producing" more housework which may be adding to her stress level. From my experience it isn't always the hours adding to my stress but the expected productive outcome. Hours along don't seem like a clear determinant of stress level due to multitasking.
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posted by Mike on 3 Dec 2011 at 4:35 pm
DO people think about what they have to do when they become a parent before they are a parent? My wife and I waited to have a child while our parents were chomping at the bit to have grandchildren, they are not the ones to decide, and yet I see many fall victim to the pressure, or they have a child or two or three and don't want to give up the life they had before children.
If you have kids then you need to make that a priority, if you cannot then really do the world a favor, do not add to the population of under-parented children, borrow a child and see if you can handle a problem child. My wife and I converted part of our house to an in home business, I worked days she worked evenings, our child was raised by us, not someone who did not care, easy no way but the rewards are - our child is appreciative of the attention and time we have given her.
We gave up money, we gave up time, but we decided to do what was needed to be good parents and we thought ahead. Too many people treat parenthood as something that is a multitasking requirement, that is parenting and doing other things, parent, do all of those things that you need to be a parent, and forget about clubbing and hanging out with your friends unless it involves being a parent first. If you cannot commit to these things then maybe you should not be a parent!How many people have kids and ship them to the grandparents on the weekends? When else are you going to have the hours for the whole family to be together, unless you would rather be doing.......
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posted by Brent on 3 Dec 2011 at 4:38 pm
If you don't like it, then it only feels harder and you end up taking more time to do everything. Men generally like multitasking and, therefore, tackle it head on and get as much done as they can at once. Women generally don't like multi-tasking and therefore it becomes harder to begin projects or taking longer to start the next one after one is finished or maybe they're doing one project and only regard it as multitasking because, in their head, they're planning out the next project rather than actually doing it. Also, if women are more stressed because they are concerned about what complete strangers think of their parenting, then they've lost their focus which should be on the safety of the children or the tasks at hand.
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posted by Old Fashioned Worker on 3 Dec 2011 at 4:40 pm
Mothers today are lazy! They whine a lot while doing very little in comparison to past generations. These women do not cook, clean, sew or keep house. They feed their families fast foods. Everything is too much for them. As a result mothers, fathers and their children are fat or obese.
Shameful!
I have always worked and had a career. I raised a family while working 50-60 hours a week and still managing to do volunteer work. I cooked, cleaned and did yard work. My husband and I both cared for our home and children.
I will say again, today’s women are simply lazy. If they moved more and complained less they would be in better shape.
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posted by S on 3 Dec 2011 at 4:41 pm
The study was taken from a sample during the year in 1999-2000.
That was almost over 12 years ago. Technology has improved quite a bit - in the realm of multi-tasking and communicating via Cell Phone.
I was almost impressed.
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posted by janet ferris on 3 Dec 2011 at 4:57 pm
This data was taken from 1999 to 2000 ...the Offer-Schneider study took this long to gather this data?....from my observations i believe this information might be more "balanced" in the years that have followed...why so long to compute the data?????? 11 years?
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