Moms Time, Weekdays and Weekends, by Work Status Average number of hours per day spent on
Overall, on the weekends, mothers scale back their time spent on child care by 29%, compared with the amount of time spent during a week day (1.5 hours per day vs. 2.1 hours). This is consistent with earlier research by Sayer, Bianchi, and Robinson.
A recent Pew Research Center report found that stay-at-home mothers spend more time on child care and housework than working mothers. But the gap in child care is much narrower on the weekends than during the week, and working moms spend almost the same amount of time on housework as stay-at-home moms do on the weekends.
Working moms tend to use the weekend to clean up the house: They increase their time spent on this activity by about one hour during the weekends. At the same time, stay-at-home moms take a little break from household chores on weekends. And all mothers, whether working outside the home or not, have more time for leisure activities during weekends.
Moms Time, Weekdays and Weekends,  | by Work Status  | Average number of hours per day spent on  | WEEKDAY  | WEEKEND  | STAY-ATHOME MOMS  | 4.9  | WORKING MOMS  | 4.3  | 4.2  | 3.5  | HOURS  | 2.9  | 2.9 2.7  | 2.6  | 1.9  | 1.8  | 1.7  | 1.3  | House work Child care Leisure  | Housework Child care  | Leisure  | Note: Based on mothers ages 18 to 69 with own child(ren) younger than 18 in the  | house hold. Work status is ages based on employment information younger in the previous week.  | Source: Pew Research Center ana lysis of 2003 2012 Ame rican Time Use Survey,  | ATUS-X  | PEW RESEARCH CENTER 