Re:How Nonemployed Americans Spend Their Weekdays
by rayiner on Tuesday January 06, 2015 @01:03PM
(#8845912)
If you click through to the Pew study and look at the definitions of the categories, housework + childcare isn't all-inclusive of things that women do disproportionately. E.g. it doesn't include shopping, which shows up in the un-employed article significantly, and among working class people is mostly a chore (grocery shopping, kids' clothes, etc). The definition of "childcare" also doesn't include "the kid is sleeping, but I can't leave a toddler in the house alone and have lunch with my friends."
Indeed, if you add up work + leisure, and subtract out 8 hours a day of sleep, there's 32 hours a week left over for men, and 38 left over for women. I wouldn't be surprised if a lot of this time precludes leisure activities because of the "on call" nature of being the primary care-giver.
Moreover, simply adding up housework + childcare time doesn't quite capture the situation. Spending a day taking care of a kid is much more exhausting than working at a typical white-collar job. It's blue-collar work that cuts across the economic classes in a world where most men aren't doing blue-collar work. Last year I had a 9-5, while my wife had a busier schedule. So I'd cook and watch our daughter until she got home. At 8:00 when my wife got home, she had much more energy for leisure activity. I'm a guy who regularly works 70-80 hour weeks, but a day taking care of our toddler puts me right out.
Indeed, if you add up work + leisure, and subtract out 8 hours a day of sleep, there's 32 hours a week left over for men, and 38 left over for women. I wouldn't be surprised if a lot of this time precludes leisure activities because of the "on call" nature of being the primary care-giver.
Moreover, simply adding up housework + childcare time doesn't quite capture the situation. Spending a day taking care of a kid is much more exhausting than working at a typical white-collar job. It's blue-collar work that cuts across the economic classes in a world where most men aren't doing blue-collar work. Last year I had a 9-5, while my wife had a busier schedule. So I'd cook and watch our daughter until she got home. At 8:00 when my wife got home, she had much more energy for leisure activity. I'm a guy who regularly works 70-80 hour weeks, but a day taking care of our toddler puts me right out.