Stressful and inflexible jobs ‘damaging families’

Flexible work and more equal parental leave are vital for good parenting, a new report from think tank Demos has concluded. Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg will officially launch the report later today when he is expected to also announce plans to allow couples to share maternity leave.

The report – The Home Front - argues that inflexible, stressful and emotionally demanding jobs can undermine parenting confidence and contribute to emotional withdrawal from children. It finds that while educational background has little effect on parenting style, work conditions were shown to make an impact.

Demos polled 1,017 parents. Although being employed was in general positive for parenting, the kind of work parents did had an impact. Work impacted negatively on parenting when it was characterised by inflexibility - in terms of hours and culture in the workplace.

Parents in well-paid but highly stressful jobs experienced as much negative impact as those in mundane, low-paid and low-skill jobs, because of the lack of choice about working long hours and emotional demands of the workplace. The ability to be creative at work, as well as flexible with hours had a positive impact on parenting.

Guilt associated with working difficult hours was found to damage parents’ self confidence and confidence in their parenting ability, though the parent’s own perception of this was far greater than any impact observed during research. Informal, community support networks were found to improve parental confidence.

The research also found that:

• One in three fathers in the UK work more than 48 hours a week, compared with a quarter of men without children
• 12% of fathers work more than 60 hours a week, and typically, fathers increase their hours once their youngest child is six years old
• the number of working mothers has tripled from one in six in 1951 to two in three now, with 6% working more than 48 hours and 3% more than 60

The poll found that 41%of fathers were in favour of introducing 'use it or lose it' paternity leave, compared to only 31% of mothers. Overall, 66% of parents were positive or neutral on the issue and only 28% opposed 'use it or lose it' paternity leave.  Less than half of mothers surveyed would be happy for their partner to be the main carer,

The Demos report makes the following recommendations:

• Boost the capacity of organisations to offer flexible work: Businesses must be encouraged to support employees who request flexible work.  The recession and rise in unemployment should be used as an opportunity to experiment with flexible working arrangements.
• Encourage shared parenting through an equal system of parental leave: Parental leave should be on the basis of ‘use it or lose it’ for both mothers and fathers and include an element of transferable leave.
• Engage fathers in parenting related public services: Health visitors and Sure Start workers should always ask to register both the mother and father of the child. They should receive training on how to appeal to and encourage fathers and male carers as parents.

Kitty Ussher, director of Demos said: “Our working lives are inextricably bound up with our home lives and the ability of parents to support their children will be shaped by their freedom to balance care with their responsibilities at work.

“But work does not have a straightforward relationship with parenting.  It’s not only the number of hours worked, but also the flexibility of a parent’s schedule and the quality of their work that makes a difference to children.”

Jen Lexmond, author of the report, said: “Work has a profound effect on parenting across all incomes.  The right kind of work that is flexible and stimulating can improve parenting.  But these kinds of jobs often come hand in hand with high levels of stress and emotional exhaustion which can be a toxic mix for parental confidence.”

“What’s clear is that our jobs make it difficult to share parenting responsibilities - the result too often being a double shift for mothers and a lack of engagement from fathers. We have to recognise that our current system of parental leave and current approach to flexible working is supporting these gendered trends and the result isn’t good for anyone – mothers, fathers or children.”