Who is minding the children

I thought about explaining that I was a stay-at-home dad, the primary caretaker of my daughter and had been since she was born.

I wanted to tell her that my wife and I had made the decision long before her birth for me to stay home with the kids, and that this wasn't a temporary, "until I find a job" situation. And, no, I was not babysitting.

Fast forward to the present. Just the other day, I was upstairs when I heard the doorbell ring one afternoon. Figuring it was a UPS delivery that was just left on the porch, I took my time, and then I heard my older daughter open the door.

A man's voice said, "Hi! Where's your mom? I was heading downstairs, thinking that the guy would ask who else was home, but instead he just said, "Okay.

Guess I'll come back later. After I explained to my daughter that she should check with me before opening the door to strangers, she wondered aloud why some guy wanted to know where her mom was. So I had to tell her that, well, a lot of people just assume that the mom is the one who's home with the kids, and it doesn't occur to them that dads might be, too.

So it was with some interest and, I'll admit, not a little irritation that I discovered these assumptions aren't just held by your average, stuck-in-thes, unenlightened citizen.

The U. Government thinks so, too. I was surprised to find that my duties as a stay-at-home dad are considered "child care," according to the Census Bureau. But that's not all: "Designated parent" is defined as the mother, unless the child lives with the father in a single-parent household.

And if the father works and the mother stays at home with the kids? Well, they don't really count that time at all as "child care" -- it's not really considered in the equation.

The report itself is, as you might expect from a governmental report, somewhat dry and boring. But buried within it are some assumptions about parenting and gender roles that I find extremely problematic. By definition, the "designated parent" is the mother if both parents are present in a household, or in single-mother households.

In a single-father household, the father is the designated parent. They ask the designated parent questions about child care. I emailed Lynda Laughlin, the author of the report, to ask her a few questions about how child care is measured, why certain things are taken into account but others aren't. In SIPP, child care that is provided by the father, or more broadly the other parent of the designated parent, is only asked of designed parents that are working or going to school.

For the purposes of SIPP, designated parents who are working or enrolled in school are asked to report what type of child care they use while at work or school. For designated parents who are not employed or enrolled in school, we ask who cares for their child while the child is not in their care.

So, according to the SIPP, if you're a mom and the father is at work, you aren't "minding the children. Experimental evidence on the demand for child care quality, " Economics of Education Review, Elsevier, vol. Share Twitter LinkedIn Email. Working Paper DOI Issue Date December Revision Date November Acknowledgements and Disclosures The authors gratefully acknowledge the helpful comments and suggestions provided by seminar participants at San Diego State University and conference participants at the annual meeting of the Association for Public Policy Analysis and Management APPAM.

Other Versions December 5, Published Versions Gordon, James A. Alan J. Auerbach, the Robert D.