Balancing paid work, care and leisure in post-separation households

Abstract

This article provides insight into the daily lives of separated parents involved in two types of living arrangements: single parents (mainly mothers) living with their children full-time and co-parents living with their children part-time. Earlier studies have stated that the everyday lives of separated mothers are more constrained than those of married mothers. We show that the growing diversity of post-separation living arrangements should no longer be ignored in studies of the consequences of separation, in policy frameworks or in debates on separation. Our findings reveal that single mothers experience more constraints in combining work, care and leisure in daily life than co-parents do. The differences between the groups are explained by different commitments in the work and care domains. These differences are not solely matters of choice. Single mothers who are less highly educated and work fewer hours than co-parents have limited resources with which to arrange or negotiate a more gender-equal outcome. Empirical evidence is drawn from individual in-depth interviews with 18 separated parents living in The Netherlands.