A survey reveals how working moms raise kids. Mothers are more involved in parenting even if they are working, says a survey conducted by the Ohio State University. Experts had a look at middle-class families in which both the parents were working. Even in such a scenario, moms spent more free time with their kids as compared to dads. Mothers in such households were held responsible for all the childcare-related tasks and still managed to spend more time with their kids. Although dads spend more time with their kids than they did a few decades ago but they are still not able to compete with moms as far as kids are concerned.

Although both the parents are ready to share responsibilities together but mothers think they face a pressure to be called a better parent. One of the co-authors of the study, Sarah Schoppe Syllivan, analyzed why moms had a greater tendency to take care of their children’s needs. Researchers had a look at 182 dual-income middle class families. They started analyzing from the third trimester of the couple’s pregnancy.

Each of the members of the 182 couples was given dairies both for the time they spent at their workplace and then at home. They were supposed to document each and every task that they had performed during the 24-hour period. They were asked to record their activities once when their child was three months old and once when it was nine months old.

The categories

To help them with the research, the experts divided parenting duties into four categories.

• Positive engagement: parents played with, talked to or read to their child
• Responsibility: providing indirect care, such as scheduling check-ups
• Accessibility: supervising the child, but no other parenting activities
• Routine care: bathing, feeding and diapering

How working parents raise children?

The study revealed that moms spent 70% of their time on childcare when they were not working or sleeping. Dads spent 50% of their free time doing something for their kids. Researchers further studied that even after several kids, parents did not make any efforts to change their routine they had adopted when their first baby was born.