Reconciling, the most difficult for large families
The difficulties for reconcile family and work they are the main barrier for families to have children. This is what emerges from the macro-survey carried out by the Spanish Federation of Large Families (FEFN) and the Madrid Foundation. large families throughout Spain to know how they are and how they live. The survey has shown the importance of working hours for families and their relationship with family life.
More than 4,000 large families have participated in this survey in which life and consumption habits have been addressed, as well as the main difficulties and concerns of the large family group formed by more than half a million homes.
Among other issues, 51% of large families considers the reconciliation of work and family life as the main difficulty that families have today to have children, followed by instability and precariousness in employment for 35% and the economic crisis, something that seems to worry them less than a few years ago: only 12% of respondents point to it as the main problem compared to 17% in 2014.
Economy: difficulties to get to the end of the month
For 59 percent of large families to reach the end of the month is a goal for which they find many difficulties and one in three families has had to spend savings or incur any debt to meet all the expenses of the family. And is that 45 percent of large families live with between 1,500 and 3,000 euros per month and 28 percent has less than 1,500 euros per month. Only in the 3 percent of these homes enter more 6,000 euros each month.
Fathers and mothers in the division of tasks
The division of tasks continues to be divided between parents or mothers in large families. Thus, 74 percent of women care for clothes, compared to 2 percent of men, and repairs and facilities in the home, 50 percent of men and 15 percent of women . In exchange for the purchase both are occupied, in 51 percent of the cases.
The most shared responsibility is "caring for the children", to which both parents dedicate themselves in 61 percent of the families. This is where families miss time: 41 percent consider that they do not spend enough time with their children and of them, 86 percent are clear that it is due to work schedules. Therefore, 80 percent of families say that the compatibility of work and family schedules would help "a lot" to reconcile family and work.
The large family type
How is the profile of a large family type in Spain? According to the survey data, the "typical" type of extended family would be a couple between the ages of 40 and 50, mostly married (85%) with three children (72%) of school age: in most of these households there are children from 3 to 6 years old (57% of families) and from 7 to 11 years old (65%) and only 15% have children over 18 years of age.
The parents have a majority university education, which reaches 60 percent in the case of mothers and 51 percent in the case of parents. In most cases both work outside the home, almost half of the respondents are salaried in the private sector (48% of men and 35% of women), and 19% in the public sector in both cases (father and mother).
Marina Berrio
