U.S. women quitting jobs to spend more time with their kids

U.S. women quitting jobs to spend more time with their kidsResearchers have accepted that as initially thought that U.S. moms were quitting their jobs to drive their children to activities was a fad, the reality is opposite and it is a national trend.

After three decades of decline, the amount of time dedicated to child care went up dramatically in the past 20 years, while the number of children per household decreased, found Garey and Valerie Ramey of the University of California, San Diego.

Valerie Ramey says in a statement, "I was shocked to find moms with graduate degrees who had quit their jobs because they needed more time to drive their children to activities."

At first, the researchers say they thought this was just a local fad, but after reviewing data from 12 U.S. surveys describing how people spend their time, from 1965-2007, they realized they were onto a national trend.

The study finds on average, the amount of time college-educated women spent on child care went up from 13 to 22 hours per week since the mid-1990s -- mostly coordinating and driving their children to organized activities, while mothers without college spent 11 to 16 hours on child care.

During the study period, college-educated fathers increased their child care from four hours to 10 hours, while fathers without college increased their childcare from four to eight hours. (With Inputs from Agencies)