Parents do £70k of unpaid work in the home

[1Wanda1]

From an article in The Times today (have pasted a few bits as most people won't be able to read the article if I link it. This might be of interest to the many MNers whose partners seem to think they sit around doing nothing all day!

A separate study found British parents undertake £70,768 of unpaid work a year around the house and running around for the children.

It found that the average parent spends more than 100 hours a week juggling household tasks, from cooking and cleaning to ferrying children around and helping with their homework.

Parents were spending 29 hours a week cooking, preparing and serving food and drinks, ten hours playing with the children, the same amount of time driving on the school run, to activities, clubs and playdates, and nine hours giving advice.

I would rephrase that as married to a misogynistic, selfish, self important, wanker. My DH works about 50 hour weeks and would love to do more but had always prioritised home life/looking after the kids/housework as not fair otherwise.

I dont really get the need to put a price on stuff everyone does as part of life

But then I have an actual job and wouldn't tolerate my oh saying I sit around doing nothing all day

He knows I don't because he does what I do.

Yes, bringing up children takes time and work. There is nothing in the original list though that I don't do and I also work full time and am a single parent. And I'm not on my own- there are loads of us there pretty much filling waking hours with work + childcare. I've never had a cleaner or gardener etc. Sure, some days feel long but if I didn't work, I can't imagine how I would fill those hours just with housework (I do all the life admin too obviously and it isn't that much).

I would love it if the government would pay me for all that extra work I do though 😄

Well exactly, it's not like people without children don't have cook, clean and do washing. It's just life

It reminds me of the 'Wages for Housework' campaign in the 70s. I didn't agree with it then and I don't agree now. For one thing, who is going to judge whether I have done it to a satisfactory standard. I do it for myself so I am the judge.

Wages for housework - Wikipedia Here's the link for those too young to remember it. It strikes me that the pay is only applicable to women which speaks volumes about the time I suppose.

Exactly. It's living life.

Did you keep the receipt for the child? Sounds like you’ve been mis-sold. Could you find a good lawyer?

You would still need to do many of those jobs even if you didn't have kids!

This is such a depressing thread. Discussing unpaid caring as work is perfectly normal for economists- there are lots of different economic definitions of work but a useful one here is any activity, paid or unpaid, which contributes to the functioning of society. Of course childcare comes within this definition. It’s not about whether you choose to do it or enjoy it, but about whether it has a social value.

The number of posts on this thread suggesting this shouldn’t even be discussed makes me want to cry. It really feels like we are going backwards. Unpaid caring work, most of which is still done by women, is hugely valuable to society and within our culture tends to be massively undervalued. Yet there are women on here suggesting we shouldn’t even be discussing it in case it makes people feel resentful.

Yeah, this.

I wouldn’t class it as work though.

People choose to have children. By doing so they accept the extra responsibilities that come with it.

If they didn’t have children they would still need to cook and clean for themselves.

If someone chooses to be a SAHP then they are accepting that they’ll do a much larger share than their partner.
But their job is still easier than 2 working parents or a single working parent who still has to cook, clean, do laundry etc on top.

It's just living. It's also not like non parents or parents of adults aren't doing loads of that stuff too. You still need to clean, eat and do washing if your kids are grown or you don't have any.

It’s called life .

Yep.

The number of posts on this thread suggesting this shouldn’t even be discussed makes me want to cry. It really feels like we are going backwards. Unpaid caring work, most of which is still done by women, is hugely valuable to society and within our culture tends to be massively undervalued. Yet there are women on here suggesting we shouldn’t even be discussing it in case it makes people feel resentful.

You can get carers allowance if you are a carer.

People in this country already get paid extra money for having children like child benefit.

Why should parents get paid extra because they’re washing their childrens clothes and cooking their meals, when it was then who decided to have kids and the tax payers need to fund it.

I say that as a single parent who would love the idea of getting paid to do my every day tasks but that would never happen and it shouldn’t happen.

What about the people who choose not to have children, they still have to cook and clean etc.

@ItstheZwartbles could you make a video showing how you do all your laundry and hang it all up to dry in just 4 minutes I'd love to see what I'm doing wrong!

@AlisonHalligan

I get your point and definitely think we should be discussing why women do more than men

But I dont think the term unpaid is helpful because the work will never be paid

No one is going to pay you to wash your own dishes or look after your own kids.

There is no economic benefit to it

I don’t why this is getting to so many dismissive comments, unpaid work in the home is so important to recognise and it still plays such a massive part in our unequal society.

True... But they've massaged this figure until it's full on bullshit.

9 hours giving advice? I'd lay a heavy bet on that just being "talking to your child", and that it occurs during other tasks anyway.

Apparently some people do pay others to do this sort of thing - they have a nanny and a cook etc

Therefore it has a value which apparently is relevant to country metrics like GDP so needs to be captured and estimated

Dh did sone accounting stuff in days gone by

@midgemadgemodge

Paying a cleaner or a nanny is not the same as someone paying you to clean your own house or watch your own kids

I'm like this. Can't imagine ever doing more than half an hour of chores a day, because you really can reduce them to very little.

Funnily enough, the roles that keep hiring me are because I bring this sort of efficiency to work too :D Saves them thousands of pounds, and hundreds of hours of productivity.

But because I specialise in it, I know that most people are pants at it. Mountains being made out of molehills everywhere.

That must be tough on only 4 hours sleep OP. Or 3 hours sleep if you have a commute. Or 2 if you ever do overtime.

Damn, sorry didn't RTFT. That'll teach me.

Why, who is gonna pay them ?.

This thread is depressing and ridiculous in equal measure. The desperation of some to not acknowledge the value of unpaid work in our society is sinister.

Parenting and the work associated with it can be unbelievably hard, especially by modern standards. Those that think it's just part of life and just so easy should consider fostering as most local authorities are desperate for foster families and pay you handsomely for doing the things you find so easy.