Resource inequalities, flexible work, and working mothers’ experiences with child care packaging

While many working mothers must “package” childcare by combining multiple non-parental arrangements, we know little about whether care packaging is consequential for mothers' work-family well-being. Drawing on the 2023 Canadian Survey on Early Learning and Child Care, we examine associations between care packaging intensity and two outcomes: family-to-work interference and satisfaction with work-life balance. We extend prior work by conceptualizing care packaging as an ongoing form of cognitive labour, and by testing whether financial resources and flexible work arrangements moderate its association with work-family outcomes. Net of extensive family, job, and geographic controls, mothers using multiple childcare arrangements report higher family-to-work interference and lower work-life satisfaction than those using a single arrangement. These penalties are concentrated among mothers in the lowest household income quintile; however, among mothers who can adjust their work hours, managing several care arrangements is no longer associated with higher family-to-work conflict. Decreased satisfaction with work-life balance is also no longer associated with multiple care arrangements when mothers have flexible hours and/or can work from home. Findings underscore how the crisis of care is lived unevenly across households and highlight schedule control as a key resource that can reduce the work-family costs of fragmented care.