ABSTRACT
The COVID-19 pandemic powerfully altered parents’ time schedules and time pressures as their lives shifted in unique and unprecedented ways. This chapter shows how three central forms of parents’ time during the pandemic – time parents spent with children, for children, and toward safeguarding children’s futures – was upended. I illustrate how the pandemic transformed these aspects of time, increasing parents’ demands. First, the quality of time with children became more stressful, although potentially more enjoyable and meaningful as well. Second, the time spent for children’s provision – in paid and unpaid labor – increased to very high levels, in large part due to how children’s education demands moved into homes. Third, the time parents invest toward the safeguarding of children’s futures became more emotionally fraught. Notably, the increased demands and pressures related to parental time varied by social class and gender, exacerbating inequalities. Looking toward the future, there may be countervailing effects that lessen the blow of pandemic time stressors, as new meanings surrounding the value of spending time with and for children may develop among families and societies. Especially important for parental justice will be changes in societal supports for the healthy allocation of parents’ time with children, for children, and toward safeguarding their futures.
