American Time Use Survey: Charts by Topic: Care of household children

Charts by Topic: Care of household children (by adults living in households with children)

Findings from the 2015 survey:

Adults living in households with children under age 6 spent an average of 2.0 hours per day providing primary childcare to household children. Adults living in households where the youngest child was between the ages of 6 and 17 spent less than half as much time providing primary childcare to household children�49 minutes per day. Primary childcare is childcare that is done as a main activity, such as providing physical care or reading to children.
On an average day, among adults living in households with children under age 6, women spent 1.0 hour providing physical care (such as bathing or feeding a child) to household children; by contrast, men spent 25 minutes providing physical care.
Adults living in households with at least one child under age 6 spent an average of 5.3 hours per day providing secondary childcare�that is, they had at least one child in their care while doing activities other than primary childcare. Secondary childcare provided by adults living in households with children under age 6 was most commonly provided while doing leisure activities (2.1 hours) or household activities (1.3 hours).
Adults living in households with children under age 6 spent more time providing primary childcare on an average weekday (2.1 hours) than on an average weekend day (1.8 hours). However, they spent less time providing secondary childcare on weekdays than on weekend days�4.5 hours compared with 7.4 hours.

Married women, ages 25 to 54, who were employed full-time and lived with a child under 6, spent 2.3 fewer hours per weekday caring for household children than women who were not employed. (Data are from the 2015 survey.)