ABSTRACT
This chapter explains the impact of children on adult time in Australia. Countries vary in their attitudes to children and childrearing, and also in the degree to which the responsibility falls to women or is shared by men or by the state. At one extreme, children are a private good, and any gap in time or money expenditures between parents and the childless, or between mothers and fathers, is not a matter of public concern. The welfare state as a particular historical construction of the early to mid-twentieth century catered to a historically specific population with a historically specific risk structure. The labour force was predominantly male, women were at home, and post-Second World War families were stable with high fertility. Dual-earner regimes do actively promote women's access to the workforce both before and after motherhood, parental leave is generous, and care for children is generally state-provided.
