The New Practice Lab at New America published a study Wednesday that showed parents want more of two things: time and money.
The study compiled responses from more than 5,400 parents from all 50 states and the District of Columbia with children ages 0 to 5. The study also included many families that were below the federal poverty level.
In the report, the researchers posed this question: “How might our public policies shift if they were more informed by what families say?”
Tara McGuinness, founder and executive director of the New America Lab, said in a virtual press briefing before the report’s release, “(America’s) policies for families aren’t wrong, but they aren’t necessarily right either.”
New America is a research institute hoping to create a “new” America through research and solutions. The New Practice Lab, located in Washington, D.C., studies the economic livelihood of American families.
Drawing on the survey responses from parents across the country, McGuinness and her team of researchers showed the changes parents want.
Quality time
McGuinness said parents need money to put food on the table, but she also found parents have “a real hunger to be there” with their children.
In the study, 72% of parents reported wanting more quality time with their kids, the top response among all other options. Kelly Bidwell, a researcher on the team, said the desire for more quality time was common across all income levels. “Parents’ time with their children is too short from the start,” she said.
The survey asked parents how much parental leave they took after having a child. The median for women was 10 weeks, and the median for men was 2 weeks. In the report, 52% of dads and 59% of moms said that was not enough time.
Choosing between money and time
An Oklahoma mother of three quoted in the reports said, “The most challenging thing about being a parent of a young child now is deciding if you can support your family off of one income or for your entire paycheck to go to child care costs.”
The report emphasized the struggle that many families face: Parents who both want to work must spend a chunk of their paychecks on child care, but parents who choose to live on one income end up with less money as well.
“There’s no one-size-fits-all policy solution when it comes to the early years,” said Alyson Silkowski, another researcher on the team. The government and employers must “think of program models that are responsive to what parents want.”
McGuinness said that most parents want to work, but it’s how and when they work that becomes the question. The goal of the study, according to McGuinness, is to put time at the center of the child care policy debate.
What parents want
Survey answers showed that what parents want sometimes depends on the gender of the parent and the age of the child.
Most parents in general reported wanting to work, but 64% of fathers wanted to work full time compared to 30% of mothers. That statistic changed with the age of the child. More parents with children closer to 5 wanted to work full time than parents of newborns and younger children.
The type of child care parents preferred also changed with the child’s age. Overall, more parents wanted to care for their child themselves, but the percentage of parents wanting their child to be cared for in a formal, child care setting increased as the child got older.
Some answers, however, did not depend on the child’s age or the parent’s gender. The study showed that across all incomes, 66% of parents who were working said higher pay would help them “a lot.”
“I need to make more money in shorter hours to allow myself the freedom to spend more time with my family,” a mom of three in Pennsylvania said in the report.
But beyond higher wages, “parents need generous paid family and medical leave benefits and access to affordable child care of their choice,” the report said.
Working toward a solution
In the study, there was not a single work, child care or leave option chosen by 50% or more of the respondents, adding to the fact that the solution won’t be one-size-fits-all.
The report also acknowledged that it can be harder to find solutions for families in unique situations, like single parents or parents supporting another adult along with their own children.
During the virtual press briefing, McGuinness said there are plenty of policies that help enable time for families. She pointed to the Social Security program in Canada as an example of a possible solution for American parents wanting more time with their kids. Parents in Canada aren’t docked Social Security during years they aren’t in the workforce, she said.
“To be a parent of a young child in the U.S. today is to live within profound systemic constraints,” the report said. Policymakers, per the report, should start by listening to parents, the people who policy changes will actually help.
“By doing so we are more likely to meet more parents where they are, and make it genuinely possible for parents to create a thriving life for themselves and for their children,” according to the report.