Parenting During the Pandemic - American Society of Employers - Kevin Marrs

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Parenting During the Pandemic

working dad with his sonAccording to Cleo, a parenting benefits company, working parents in the U.S. are losing a cumulative 720 million hours each week to stress, anxiety, and caregiving.  This is according to their State of Working Parents Study published in late September.

The results of their data collection clearly show that the challenges of childcare are not spread evenly within households, and women as you might expect shoulder the brunt of these duties.  In fact, according to their research, 61% of women (versus 26% of men) feel responsible for the majority of caregiving and education responsibilities in their partnership.


According to Cleo, several themes that are critical for employers to watch closely emerged from the survey results, including the following:

 

  • Working parents in the U.S. are losing a cumulative 720 million hours each week to stress/anxiety and caregiving, with women losing 49% more time than men.
  • 39% of working parents adjusted their hours with the help of a flexible work schedule, with women 15% more likely to have made this change.
  • One in four people are still considering finding a new job to better accommodate their dual role as a working parent.

 

According to the research, many working parents are also under stress related to managing the health of everyone in their households. The authors suggest that concerns about health and safety were among the most common challenges reported across all families.

 

  • One in four families have a child who has specialized health needs, such as mental health/behavioral issues, chronic illness, or neurodivergent conditions.
  • 10% of all families report having a child with a pediatric mental health or behavioral issue (e.g. anxiety, ADHD).
  • 7% of families report having a child with a childhood chronic illness (e.g. asthma, Type 1 diabetes, epilepsy).

 

Lastly, parents are losing time they normally would spend working to things like stress and anxiety about COVID-19 and their day to day caregiving obligations.

 

  • Working parents are losing an average of 1.2 hours to stress and anxiety plus 1.9 hours to caregiving every day.
  • This translates to two full days of lost productive work time every week.
  • Fewer than 1 in 4 working parents, report losing no time at all due to anxiety or caregiving responsibilities.
  • Women are losing notably more time, approximately 50% more, to stress/anxiety and caregiving.
  • The authors highlight that women are losing 63% more time to caregiving obligations than men.

 

Employers will likely not be surprised by these numbers given what has transpired since the pandemic has started.  However, there are few silver bullet solutions.  Increasing access to certain benefits (i.e., work from home, etc.) will alleviate some of the burden, but there is likely to be a drag on productivity until the pandemic fades.

 

 

Source:  https://hicleo.com/blog/state-of-working-parents-study-q3-2020/

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