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The Statistics Korea’s “2024 Time Use Survey” highlights the reality faced by parents. Parents with minor children sleep 20 minutes less than the national average, spend 2 hours more on work and household chores, and have 2 hours less leisure time. Dual-income households face even longer obligatory hours. Ultimately, parents struggle to secure sufficient childcare time even by sacrificing sleep and leisure.
The solutions to change this reality fall into two main categories: strengthening childcare services for infants and children so the state can share the responsibility, and expanding flexible work arrangements to improve parents’ time efficiency.
The government declared “state responsibility for childcare” last year and has been implementing follow-up measures. Since July of this year, free education and childcare for 5-year-olds has been realized, and this will expand to all children aged 3–5 by 2027. Starting next year, the teacher-to-child ratio for 0-year-olds will improve from 1 to 3 to 1 to 2. Additionally, plans include providing vouchers for after-school programs in elementary schools and improving their quality to ensure access to better education and childcare.
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Childcare is not solely the family’s responsibility. If public childcare is systematically expanded, quality control in the private sector is strengthened, and flexible work becomes the norm, parents’ childcare burdens can undoubtedly be reduced. When conditions are created that allow people to choose to have children, childbirth becomes a viable option. If society shares the weight of childcare, a future where “both parents and children are happy” will become a realizable goal.