Any Time for Fun?

Abstract

A 2008 journal article carried the ominous title, “No fun anymore: Leisure and marital quality across the transition to parenthood” (Claxton & Perry-Jenkins, 2008). The authors found that during the transition to parenthood, both husbands and wives reported a decline in leisure activities. Indeed, as couples become parents, leisure time seems to get “set aside” and viewed as a “bonus activity” (p. 28). Several other studies have reported a decline in couples’ joint leisure time when they become parents (Belsky, Spanier, & Rovine, 1983) and as compared to non-parents (Huston, McHale, & Crouter, 1986; Cowan & Cowan, 1988; Kurdek, 1993). The situation may improve once the baby gets older. In one study, the low levels of leisure time that characterize the transition to parenthood recover somewhat once the baby is a year old and as wives return to paid employment (Claxton & Perry-Jenkins, 2008).