Australian families are trying to combine two full-time jobs with school schedules and care arrangements that often assume someone is available during the day. ABC News describes a routine involving school preparation, commuting, paid work, pick-up, activities, homework and household responsibilities, leaving many parents struggling to find enough hours.
For a family with two full-time working parents and primary school-aged children, the school day creates a substantial gap. School commonly runs from about 9am to between 3pm and 3:30pm, while a traditional full-time workday lasts eight hours. If school finishes at 3:30pm, parents must cover about 300 hours across the 40-week school year before accounting for commuting or other commitments.
Kate Harrison Brennan, director of the Sydney Policy Lab at The University of Sydney, said the figures showed that “the maths does not add up”. She said the afternoon pick-up created a sharp break in the working day, while Georgie Dent, chief executive of The Parenthood, described the mismatch between school and work hours as “a structural tax” paid most often by mothers.
After-school care can cover some of the difference, but ABC News reports that it may be unaffordable for families with several children and unavailable to many others. Harrison Brennan said subsidised after-school care places were heavily concentrated in major cities and that only about one in five Australians could be considered fortunate in accessing them.
Commuting adds another constraint. Australians spend an average of 3.8 hours commuting to work each week, equivalent to about 182 hours a year, while the average daily commute is 52 minutes, rising to about 56 minutes in capital cities. Professor Hill said the challenge was particularly acute for people travelling between schools, homes and workplaces, especially in outer metropolitan areas.
Working from home has helped some families reduce commuting and combine responsibilities more easily. Dr Belinda Strazdins said it had made workplaces happier for many women, but also argued that the strong attachment to remote work reflected families’ need to recover every available minute. Parents must also allow time for drop-offs, pick-ups and activities: children’s organised sport averages about five hours a fortnight among participants, according to the cited Australian Bureau of Statistics survey, while many children also attend cultural activities, tutoring or other commitments.