Holiday fun is great. Making it happen while juggling work and child care can turn fun into stress.
A new survey of 500 employed U.S. parents of young children that was commissioned by Bright Horizons and conducted by Opinium found that 68% of those parents say this juggle is a top source of stress during the holidays. Bright Horizons is a childcare provider and Opinium is a market researcher.
Close to half (47%) of the working parents surveyed said that they need more child care support to complete everything on their holiday to-do lists and 34% said they need extra child care options such as back up care or holiday camps during school breaks. More than half (51%) said they felt increased guilt when balancing family time with work and other responsibilities.
Earlier this year, Audacy covered another survey (conducted by the meditation app Calm) that found 83% millennial moms were feeling the burden of holiday stress. It also found that 65% of millennial moms were overwhelmed by the pressure to make holidays “perfect.”
A C.S. Mott Children’s Hospital National Poll also found that 18% of parents rate their holiday stress as high, with mothers reporting nearly twice the stress of fathers.
Indeed, findings from the Bright Horizons/Opinium survey “align with broader research on holiday stress,” according to a press release on the new research. “A Modern Health survey reports that 57% of employees consider the holidays the most mentally draining time of year, with financial stress and family obligations topping the list.”
Bright Horizons said the insights from these studies and surveys “underscore the unique challenges parents face as they juggle professional responsibilities and family obligations during the festive season.”
Other research – including AP NORC polling results released Thursday – indicates that all Americans are feeling economic pressure this holiday season amid continuing inflation and mass layoffs in the government and at several companies. Just weeks out from the longest government shutdown in U.S. history, some families have also recently dealt with missed paychecks and halts to Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) payments.
Even before the shutdown, parents in the U.S. were feeling stress. Last November, for example, the U.S. Department of Labor said that costs for childcare were an “almost prohibitive expense,” and U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics shows that both parents are employed in 67% of households in the U.S. where children are 18 years old or younger.
“Beyond seasonal stress, long-term trends show working parents face systemic challenges,” said Bright Horizons. “Earlier this fall, the latest Modern Family Index commissioned by Bright Horizons revealed that 79% of working parents feel forced to choose between sacrifices at home or at work, and 80% say the workforce hasn’t evolved to meet modern caregiving needs.”