The United States Bureau of Labor Statistics posted an Economic News Release titled: “American Time Use Survey Summary.” Part of the summary includes statistics on the amount of time parents spent on childcare between May 2019 and December 2020.
On average, among adults living with children under 18, time spent providing primary childcare on a given day was about the same in 2019 and 2020 (1.2 hours and 1.3 hours per day, respectively). Primary childcare is childcare that is done as a main activity, such as providing physical care or reading to children.
Fifty-three percent of adults living in households with children provided childcare on a given day in 2020, down from 61 percent in 2019. As in-person school, sports, and other activities were curtailed in 2020, individuals were less likely to spend time picking up and dropping off children. As a result, the share of adults engaging in other childcare activities on a given day fell by 13 percent of adults providing child care in a given day.
Women spent an average of 1.7 hours per day and men spent an average of 46 minutes per day caring for and helping household children as their main activity in 2020. Women spent 13 minutes per day more in 2020 compared with 2019, while men spent about the same amount of time doing this activity in both years.
Adults living in households with at least one child under age 13 averaged 6.1 hours per day providing secondary childcare in 2020 — that is, they had at least one child in their care while doing activities other than primary childcare. This was an increase of 1.0 hour from 2019.
With many children’s events canceled and schools switching to virtual learning, the increase in time spent providing secondary childcare was largest for adults in households per day providing secondary childcare in 2020 compared with 2019.
Among adults living in households with children under age 13, in 2020, men averaged 4.9 hours and women averaged 7.1 hours per day providing secondary childcare. Both men and women spent about one hour more per day providing secondary childcare in 2020 compared with 2019 (up 49 minutes for men and 1.1 hours for women).
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