Arthur T Knackerbracket has processed the following story:
Forty percent of parents who worked remotely during the COVID-19 pandemic reported higher parenting stress compared with only 27 percent of parents who worked onsite, reports a new survey from scientists at Northwestern University and Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children's Hospital of Chicago.
The study results revealed a gender difference: Fathers who worked from home were twice as likely to report that parenting was stressful all or most of the time compared to fathers who worked onsite. Parenting stress for mothers who worked at home was slightly higher, but it did not reach statistical significance.
The study found no differences in mental or general health between parents who worked remotely or onsite.
"Our survey results show that teleworking during the pandemic was associated with more parenting stress, especially for fathers," said lead author Dr. John James Parker, an assistant professor of pediatrics at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine and a pediatrician at Lurie Children's. "This might be a reflection of societal expectations that men should prioritize work obligations over family needs, which creates additional stress for fathers working from home."
[...] The study authors recommend parents reflect on their family and work situation and try to find an arrangement that limits stress and promotes well-being.
"This can be as simple as putting a noise-cancelling machine in the workspace, rearranging schedules to limit distractions and planning time for parents to step away from work to be fully engaged with their children," said Parker, who also is an internist at Northwestern Medicine.
(Score: 4, Funny) by Snotnose on Tuesday November 07 2023, @08:38AM
the sky is blue.
Tell me something a 3 year old can't figure out.
Of course I'm against DEI. Donald, Eric, and Ivanka.
(Score: 4, Touché) by Opportunist on Tuesday November 07 2023, @09:54AM
People with small children should RTO, the rest of us can continue WFH.
(Score: 5, Interesting) by Rosco P. Coltrane on Tuesday November 07 2023, @09:59AM (17 children)
When Mommy stayed at home to take care of the house and the children while Daddy went to work to support the family financially, one of the things that made marriages work is that Mommy and Daddy weren't in one another's hair for 8 hours a day, so both Mommy and Daddy had some time to themselves, and the kids went to school so they weren't in Mommy's hair all the damn time too. And of course the kids didn't have their parents on their backs all the time either.
I know that because my Dad was forced to take an early retirement - after we kids left home - and my Mom told me it was a really difficult time for her because my Dad wouldn't leave the house and it was really quite stifling for her.
In short: even the most happily married couples and the most happy families need to reserve breathing space for all the individual family members for everybody to stay happy.
(Score: 2) by JoeMerchant on Tuesday November 07 2023, @10:53AM (8 children)
The Rolling Stones documented "Mother's Little Helper" long ago, that little yellow pill that helps her to deal with the stress of housework+kids, while Dad is out having 3 martini lunches.
🌻🌻🌻 [google.com]
(Score: 2) by Rosco P. Coltrane on Tuesday November 07 2023, @12:40PM (5 children)
Just to be clear, I'm not saying the old days were better. It's just how it was done because it was the social norm back then. It certainly wasn't fair to women. But that's kind of how things worked then, and how couples didn't end up shredding themselves to pieces.
Nowadays new ways of sharing a life together are introducing new sources of stress for certain categories of people - when pandemic lockdowns don't make the problem 10 times worse on top of it. I suppose that's what TFA highlights.
(Score: 2) by Reziac on Wednesday November 08 2023, @04:11AM (4 children)
How was it fair to men? They were expected to work themselves to death to support the wife and kids.
And there is no Alkibiades to come back and save us from ourselves.
(Score: 2, Touché) by khallow on Wednesday November 08 2023, @01:03PM (3 children)
At least they got paid.
(Score: 2) by Reziac on Wednesday November 08 2023, @02:44PM (2 children)
And most came home and gave the paycheck to the wife, who ran the household finances.
And there is no Alkibiades to come back and save us from ourselves.
(Score: 2) by Joe Desertrat on Sunday November 12 2023, @12:37AM (1 child)
...and Dad got a boat while Mom got a new vacuum cleaner...
(Score: 2) by Reziac on Sunday November 12 2023, @01:25AM
At the time, the boat was probably cheaper. And if you want to get all mosquito-bit while you drink beer, you go right ahead. Be sure you clean the fish before you bring them in the house.
Having known someone who did just that... the boat was about $500 and the vacuum was $1200. (Those commercial Hoovers were not cheap.)
And there is no Alkibiades to come back and save us from ourselves.
(Score: 4, Insightful) by Opportunist on Tuesday November 07 2023, @03:42PM (1 child)
And while it took us a while to figure out something for the kids, now we have Ritalin.
(Score: 2) by JoeMerchant on Tuesday November 07 2023, @04:55PM
For a twist: administered by the parents to the children...
🌻🌻🌻 [google.com]
(Score: 2) by Freeman on Tuesday November 07 2023, @03:15PM (2 children)
I did the Work From Home thing during the COVID-19 pandemic. What made it work was telling wife and kid, I'm at work, when I'm in my Office. No one comes in. There's got to be a clear defined boundary, otherwise, I could definitely see it being chaos. Personally, I was happier doing Work From Home and I actually got more accomplished. We had meetings with agendas and we stuck to them. Those meetings were essentially the only interruptions to my day. No one popping in and wanting to tell me their current woes. No more, me going to boss's office to get a 30 second opinion and end up coming back 30 minutes later due to social stuff, etc.
Joshua 1:9 "Be strong and of a good courage; be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed: for the Lord thy God is with thee"
(Score: 3, Interesting) by Mykl on Tuesday November 07 2023, @10:48PM (1 child)
I had several months of WFH with the kids in the same room as me (our youngest needed constant supervision to stay on task and not just play games all day, and my wife's work requirements effectively made it impossible for her to be the person out in the room).
It was horrible - incredibly stressful. At one point I started developing chest pains with the stress of trying to get my work done, keep the kids on track and not explode in front of everyone. Fortunately my country has a properly functioning health system and I was able to get checked out and cleared of heart problems with no additional out-of-pocket cost.
(Score: 2) by Freeman on Wednesday November 08 2023, @02:12PM
Ah, yeah, my wife was stay at home at that point, so it wasn't an issue for us. Just one of many good reasons why stay at home home is a very reasonable occupation. Stay at home Dad would be fine with me too, but it has a bit of a stigma.
Joshua 1:9 "Be strong and of a good courage; be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed: for the Lord thy God is with thee"
(Score: 3, Insightful) by darkfeline on Tuesday November 07 2023, @07:37PM (3 children)
It's almost as if the division of labor was evolved and naturally selected for over thousands of years, and it's not something that can be overridden by the proclivities of people with nothing better to do.
Join the SDF Public Access UNIX System today!
(Score: 2) by epitaxial on Tuesday November 07 2023, @07:59PM (2 children)
Division of labor is false. There is little evidence that women stayed back to raise children while men hunted. https://www.forbes.com/sites/maryroeloffs/2023/06/28/women-hunt-as-much-as-men-in-many-hunter-gatherer-societies-despite-age-old-stereotypes-study-finds/?sh=6c4cdd1c54f6 [forbes.com]
(Score: 4, Interesting) by SomeRandomGeek on Tuesday November 07 2023, @08:06PM
In the time period immediately preceding the industrial revolution, everybody lived on the farm and everybody worked on the farm. Parenting was everybody's job, especially because the kids would be out in the fields with their parents. That whole system where the man goes out to the job site every day while the woman stays home to look after things had to be invented in order to support industrialization. It is amazing how short a time it takes for everyone to think "That is the way it has always been."
(Score: 2, Informative) by darkfeline on Wednesday November 08 2023, @07:01AM
I read the linked study and it was misrepresented. Also, the journal isn't exactly trustworthy https://retractionwatch.com/2022/08/03/exclusive-plos-one-to-retract-more-than-100-papers-for-manipulated-peer-review/ [retractionwatch.com] and it wouldn't be unreasonable to assume the authors would have incentive to twist their interpretation of their meta-analysis (which can barely be called "science"). And even taking their study at face value there is enough weasel words/ambiguity in wording to doubt any conclusions made.
No one is saying no women ever hunted. But practically speaking they weren't the ones doing the hunting of big game.
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(Score: 2) by epitaxial on Tuesday November 07 2023, @07:57PM
Sounds like people that shouldn't have been married.
(Score: 4, Insightful) by Moof123 on Tuesday November 07 2023, @02:07PM
One thing I noticed was that business expectations are that male employees are treated as being more detached from their family obligations . You feel like you have to justify making space for your kids, so when you do step away to help your kid with a Zoom issue, to make them lunch, etc. it results in more side eye (or feels like it anyway). We are still growing out of old patriarchal notions, so there is hope this will fade. In the meantime mark me as totally unsurprised.
(Score: 2) by sonamchauhan on Tuesday November 07 2023, @02:52PM
Maybe the onsite dads were more stressed about dying from covid than parenting.
And the WFH dads were stressed about parenting because COVID infection was a lesser threat to them.
(Score: 4, Insightful) by Runaway1956 on Tuesday November 07 2023, @03:35PM (2 children)
Men ain't women, and women ain't men. Different things stress us, and we have different methods of dealing with stress. The thing is, men and women understood those basic facts eons ago, but today, people have forgotten all the accumulated wisdom of their forebears.
“I have become friends with many school shooters” - Tampon Tim Walz
(Score: 2, Insightful) by shrewdsheep on Tuesday November 07 2023, @04:36PM
Kids do not repeat the mistakes of their parents, but they already repeat the mistakes of their grandparents. Wisdom is difficult to impart. Apart from that, perceived wisdom is sometimes fictional.
(Score: 2) by Tork on Tuesday November 07 2023, @05:54PM
That's a funny way of saying you were told to make your own damn sammich.
🏳️🌈 Proud Ally 🏳️🌈
(Score: 4, Insightful) by ElizabethGreene on Tuesday November 07 2023, @04:00PM (5 children)
I'd be curious to survey the men reporting higher parenting stress about their social outlets or contacts other than work.
My anecdotal observation is that for many men work is *the* social outlet. Without work friends, the only contacts they have are their spouse and immediate family.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by darkfeline on Tuesday November 07 2023, @07:42PM
Yes, because men and women socialize differently, it's why men don't get shopping/etc with the girls and women don't get fishing/etc with the boys.
Join the SDF Public Access UNIX System today!
(Score: 1, Touché) by crafoo on Tuesday November 07 2023, @07:43PM
well every other male space has been destroyed by feminism, not leaving men much of an option.
Dads that stay at home have to deal with their children, and a grown child. anyone with a wife knows that women are the most responsible 13 year old in the room. they never really mature past this point.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by stormreaver on Tuesday November 07 2023, @07:55PM (2 children)
For me, that is a huge selling point for working from home: being surrounded by the love of my wife and kids all the time. It does magic for my physical, mental, and emotional health. Going into the office is soul crushing torture.
(Score: 2) by ElizabethGreene on Tuesday November 07 2023, @08:32PM (1 child)
That's awesome. If I may ask, what is your "third space", the place(s) you go that isn't work or home for social contact with others?
(Score: 2) by stormreaver on Wednesday November 08 2023, @10:38PM
I don't have one. Outside of my family, I prefer my social interactions to be distant and superficial.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday November 07 2023, @04:37PM
Cool, now do the study with people who actually set up a detached office on their property so young children doing young-children-things and making young-children-noises aren't an issue, and check that those remote workers actually have spouses that are doing their job (raising the kids, keeping them fed, etc...) instead of relying on the work-from-home parent to do it.
It's stressful when you're supposed to be working, but your spouse is expecting you to do *your* job and *their* job at the same time.