It used to be that the father would go to work from 9 to 5 while the mother stayed home with the children. Yet according to recent studies by Heymann and Presser “today’s families have more family members in the workforce, work longer hours, and are more likely to work outside of the traditional 9-to-5 weekday schedule.” Heather Boushey, an Economist at the Center for Economic and Policy Research, reports that, “less than one-in-five families with children now have a full-time homemaker/caretaker.” Yet many parents do not want to use or can’t afford daycare for their children. What is the answer? “Tag-team” parenting, where spouses work alternating schedules so that a parent can care for the children.
Research has found that “just over half of all U.S. workers have a standard workweek.” But finding care for children during non-traditional working hours is difficult and at the least very expensive. Some parents choose to work the non-traditional hours so that children don’t have to be in daycare but others are forced into it because of lack of education, high-cost of daycare, or children with special needs.
For many low-income families “tag-team” parenting is how they get around the high cost of daycare. The Children’s Defense Fund reports, “that in most states, the cost of quality preschool is greater than the cost of tuition and fees at the state university.” Also “families in the bottom 40th percentile of the income distribution who pay for center-based childcare pay on average about one-fifth of their total income.” For this reason many families are turning to “tag-team” parenting.
Then there are the families with children with disabilities or other special needs. Most daycares are not appropriate for children with special needs or are too expensive for the average family. The answer again – “tag-team” parenting.
Yet parents who are “pushed into tag-team parenting must accept a day-to-day life where parents are not able to spend much quality time with one another.” Because of their alternating schedules they are less likely to share hours at home as a family. As Heather Boushey points out, “This clearly has implications for family life and family happiness.”
In her study on tag-team parenting she urges policy makers to address the issue saying, “If working alternating schedules is the best way for families to provide care, then there may be something wrong with our system of childcare or our workplaces. Parents need flexibility to balance work and family, but the solutions must create a workable day-to-day balance for families, which truly allows them to care not only for their children, but for themselves and their spouses as well.”
Are you a tag-team parent? If so, why do you tag-team?