Facts about Modern Parenting and Child Care in America
- Approximately 60% of mothers with children under age 18 are their children’s primary caregivers. Twenty-six percent of these mothers are not employed, while 34% work part-time. However, working “part-time” can mean working as few as ten hours a week, or only during the hours children are in school. For babies and toddlers, the percentage of mothers at home increases. Approximately 63% of mothers with children under age 6 are their children’s primary caregivers. There are also approximately 147,000 full-time dads in this country. Bottom line: Despite the fact that “most mothers today are in the workforce,” the vast majority of America’s children are still cared for by their parents.
- Most Americans are not clamoring for “more and better child care,” as the media claim. Sixty-eight percent of parents say child care is “not much of a problem” for their families and feel the primary responsibility of child care rests with them.
- For parents of children 5 and under, 67% believe career trade-offs, or reducing one’s hours at work to care for very young children, is “just how life works” -- and a choice they must make for themselves.
- Most women in America prefer to work part-time -- and not at all when their children are young.
- Only 25% of children under age 5 attend day care centers.
- Seventy percent of parents with children under 5 agree that “having a parent at home is best" and a full 72% of parents -- including the majority of low-income parents -- believe parents, not the government, are responsible for child care costs.
- Sixty-three percent of parents of children under 5 disagree with the idea that children in day care receive “just as good” care and attention as with a stay-at-home parent. Not surprisingly, 78% of children’s advocates (feminist groups and working mothers) think the two arrangements are equivalent.
- The vast majority of parents in America – 76% -- believe raising children today is “a lot harder” than when they were growing up.
- Six in 10 Americans rate their generation "fair" or "poor" in raising children.
