Research finds mothers working from home get interrupted more than dads

Can't say I'm surprised.

In our house we have two adults working from home and two kids (one doing school from home), so the days are pretty hectic. The kids usually take over the sitting room to watch Home School Hub, while my husband works from our bedroom and I use the kitchen. Unfortunately my children seem to think that I'm sitting in the kitchen all day so I can make constant snacks for them. Now, I know what you're thinking, it's because I'm in the kitchen that they ask me and not their dad for food. Nope. We tried flipping it around so that I would work from the bedroom and even though their dad was in the kitchen the kids still came up to me to ask for snacks. Apparently I'm not the only working from home mother to notice this during lockdown. A recent study conducted by the Institute for Fiscal Studies found that on average working mothers have  only one hour of uninterrupted paid work for every three hours done by men during lockdown. The study interviewed 3,500 families of two opposite-gender parents and found that mothers were doing more childcare and more housework than fathers during quarantine. Mothers interviewed during the study said that they were looking after children for an average of 10.3 hours a day, 2.3 hours more than fathers, and doing housework for 1.7 more hours than fathers. Childcare and household chores aside the study also found that mothers were 23 per cent more likely than fathers to have temporarily or permanently lost their jobs during the crisis. Unfortunately that percentage may only rise as while many businesses plan to reopen next month, childcare facilities and schools will not reopen until at least September leaving parents without any means of childcare.