Are Parents Investing Less in Children? Trends in Mothers’ and Fathers’ Time with Children

In this study, time diary data are used to assess trends in mothers’ and fathers’ child care time from the mid‐1960s to the late 1990s. Contrary to conventional wisdom, the results indicate that both mothers and fathers report spending greater amounts of time in child care activities in the late 1990s than in the “family‐oriented” 1960s. For mothers, there was a 1965–75 decline in routine child care time and then a 1975–98 rebound along with a steady increase in time doing more developmental activities. For 1998 fathers report increased participation in routine child care as well as in more “fun” activities. The ratio of married mothers’ to married fathers’ time in child care declined in all primary child care activities. These results suggest that parents have undergone a behavioral change that has more than countered family change that might otherwise have reduced time with children.