About half of full-time working parents in the United States, 52%, say their job makes it harder to be a good parent. That is one of the central findings in a sweeping new Pew Research Center report on how American families are navigating the demands of employment and home life simultaneously.
A boundary that keeps dissolving
The report is based on a Pew Research Center survey of 2,242 U.S. working parents conducted March 2 to 15, 2026.
Researchers found that 70% of working parents must deal with parenting demands while they are on the clock, and 59% must answer work demands while spending time with their children. The picture is one of two spheres that rarely stay separate.
On the flip side of job stress interfering with parenting, 45% of working parents say being a parent makes it harder to advance at work. The strain runs in both directions, compressing the space families have to operate in either role fully.
The report captures a tension that has been building for decades. Prior research has shown that mothers today spend more time caring for their children than they did in the 1960s and 1970s, when far fewer mothers worked for pay.
Fathers, meanwhile, are doing more childcare than previous generations, according to prior sociological research, even as employment hours have remained largely stable.
Moms carry a heavier load, and see it differently
In dual-full-time-worker households, 52% of married or cohabiting parents say the mom does more parenting tasks than the dad, while 43% say the mom does more of the household chores. Moms and dads tend to have very different views of how parenting tasks and household chores are divided. Dads are much more likely than moms to say those responsibilities are shared about equally.
The satisfaction gap between mothers and fathers is striking. Among dads in families with two full-time working parents, 55% say they are extremely or very satisfied with how parenting tasks are divided, compared with just 36% of moms.
That 19-point gap signals that mothers and fathers are often living quite different versions of the same household arrangement.
Flexibility wanted, rarely available
Workplace flexibility is the benefit working parents say they want most, but the gap between desire and access is wide. Most full-time working parents say having flexibility to work from home when needed would be extremely or very helpful, yet only around a quarter of those who are not self-employed report having a lot of flexibility to telework.
On-site childcare is where the mismatch is most stark. Some 43% of working parents, and 59% of those with a child age five or younger, say on-site childcare would be highly helpful, but just 6% say it is available at their workplace.
Income shapes access to almost every benefit the survey measured. According to the report, full-time working parents with upper and middle family incomes are far more likely than those with lower incomes to have access to health insurance and paid time off through their employer.
The report notes that upper-income parents are also the most likely to have access to paid parental or family leave separate from general PTO.
Two-income families now the norm
As of 2025, just over half of different-sex couples with children under 18 consist of two full-time working parents, up from 31% in 1975. The work arrangements of married or cohabiting parents have changed considerably in recent decades.
Those who regularly work from home see some advantages, such as being able to attend their children’s activities when those overlap with work hours. Yet parents who work from home and those who do not are about equally likely to experience difficulty balancing work and family.
The findings arrive as employers and policymakers face growing pressure to close the gap between what working families say they need and what the labor market actually provides. With the share of dual-income households still rising, the cost of that gap, measured in parental time, equity between mothers and fathers, and shrinking leisure for all adults, shows little sign of easing on its own.
