Families on Film

You’re not alone. Researchers have finished analyzing 1,540 hours of videotape of the daily lives of 32 U.S. families, and found plenty of resistant children and parents stressed to the max. Social scientists at the University of California, Los Angeles documented every waking moment of various Los Angeles households with the hope to find out more about the lives of “the dual-earner, multiple-child, middle-class” American family.

They discovered some interesting figures. For one, the moms spent 27 percent of their time doing housework, while the dads tidied up only 18 percent of the time. Moms and dads were seen in the same room together sans children 10 percent of the time.

These parents definitely took breathers, but not in equal amounts. Dads rested from the daily grind 23 percent of the time, while moms spent half that amount taking breaks.

The New York Times reported that the tape showed abandoned backyards, even those that had trampolines and pools. Negotiations between parents and children sometimes caused the researchers to retreat for cover outside the homes. Guardians oftentimes let their rules slide in surrender.

Sound familiar? The research director, Tamar Kremer-Sadlik thinks so: “I mean, it’s not like I approved of everything these parents were doing. But I could relate to them. I knew exactly what they were going through.”

Read the full New York Times article here.