Mothers on average spend four hours a day more than fathers caring for children, a new report shows.
The average parent spends more than eight hours a day caring for their children, while some mothers of young children are spending twice that amount of time.
The Caring for Children report from Statistics New Zealand used data collected from the Time Use survey in 2010.
Statistician Luisa Beltran-Castillon says mothers of children under the age of five spend on average 12 hours a day caring for them, while mothers not working fulltime often spend between 14 and 16 hours a day looking after them.
Ms Beltran-Castillon says employment is the biggest influence on the time parents spend looking after their children and there are no differences in childcare time between the main ethnic groups.
