Modern Moms Do More for Kids

Modern mothers spend more time with their children than those in the June Cleaver era, a new study concludes. Diaries compiled for the study show that, despite working more, today's moms spend less time on things like housework, leisure, and sleep to devote four more hours per week to interacting with their kids than moms did in 1965.

Fathers today spend half as much time with the kids as moms, but that's still nearly triple 1965 totals. So why do working moms get guilt trips? Society has "enormously high expectations for how children develop, how they feel about themselves, how they achieve and how successful they are in the world," says family studies professor William Doherty. (More motherhood stories.)