20% of fathers spend “less than 30 minutes” with their children on weekdays.
With regard to time spent with the children on weekdays, 54.0% of the mothers spend “6 hours or more” with their children. On the other hand, 28.7% of fathers spend “from 2 up to 4 hours,” 23.5% spend “from 1 up to 2 hours” and 21.2% spend “less than 30 minutes” with their children.
Compared to the results of the 2nd survey (child at 18 months old), the proportion of mothers spending “6 hours or more” has dropped from 74.6% to 54.0%. While a decreasing number of fathers spend 2 hours or more, the number of those spending less than 2 hours is on the increase.
There was no major change, among both fathers and mothers, in the time spent with their children on holidays (Table 7).
Table 7 Parents’ time spent with their children
Weekday | Holiday | |||||||
Mother | Father | Mother | Father | |||||
5th survey | 2nd survey | 5th survey | 2nd survey | 5th survey | 2nd survey | 5th survey | 2nd survey | |
Total | 100.0 | 100.0 | 100.0 | 100.0 | 100.0 | 100.0 | 100.0 | 100.0 |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Less than 30 minutes | 0.2 | 0.2 | 21.2 | 15.7 | 0.2 | 0.1 | 1.5 | 0.9 |
From 30 up to 60 minutes | 0.6 | 0.6 | 14.0 | 12.5 | 0.2 | 0.2 | 1.5 | 1.6 |
From 1 up to 2 hours | 2.6 | 1.5 | 23.5 | 21.4 | 0.7 | 0.5 | 4.0 | 3.6 |
From 2 up to 4 hours | 14.6 | 8.8 | 28.7 | 33.2 | 2.6 | 1.9 | 9.3 | 8.8 |
From 4 up to 6 hours | 25.8 | 11.6 | 8.6 | 11.9 | 4.8 | 4.0 | 12.6 | 14.0 |
6 hours or more | 54.0 | 74.6 | 1.6 | 2.2 | 88.9 | 90.4 | 68.0 | 67.6 |
Unknown | 2.1 | 2.7 | 2.4 | 3.1 | 2.6 | 2.9 | 3.1 | 3.5 |
Note: | The figures for “mother” are based on the total responses of children living with their mothers (total number of mothers: 38,810) and “father” is based on the total responses of those living with their fathers (total number of fathers: 36,733) at the times of the 2nd and 5th surveys. |