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Men are doing more childcare than ever… as figures show Britons are sleeping and gardening more during lockdown

Watching television - AFP
Watching television - AFP
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Coronavirus Article Bar with counter ..

Britons have used their newfound extra time in lockdown to indulge in more sleep, television and gardening, official figures reveal, as men have been taking on more childcare duties than ever.

The Office for National Statistics (ONS) data published today reveals for the first time how life has changed under lockdown.

It found that Britons have used the extra time saved from not commuting to the office by indulging in around 18 minutes more sleep a day, almost three hours of television watching every day, as well as a whole lot more gardening.

However the ONS also found that despite increasing their childcare responsibilities during the coronavirus lockdown, women are still shouldering the majority of the burden.

Researchers asked people how they were spending their day and divided up the answers into the following categories: sleep and rest, entertainment, socialising and other free time, paid work, unpaid household work excluding travel and childcare, personal care including eating and drinking, working from home, gardening and DIY, unpaid childcare, keeping fit, travelling and transport and studying.

They found that people increased the time they spent on entertainment, socialising and other free time by 44 minutes a day.

However, by far the most popular activity in this broad category was watching television or streaming videos, which took up an average of two hours and 53 minutes a day.

Other activities in this category were far less popular. Britons spent 28 minutes a day reading, 26 minutes playing games (including computer games), and 16 minutes a day contacting friends and family via phone or messaging services.

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There was also a substantial increase in the time spent gardening and doing DIY by 147 per cent to 39 minutes a day, and on average people spent an extra 18 minutes sleeping or resting.

During lockdown, there was also a fall of one hour and 24 minutes a week in the time spent eating, drinking and engaging in activities such as getting ready to go out; going to cafés, pubs, restaurants; and getting a haircut.

Instead, Britons spent one hour and 23 minutes a day eating and drinking, which includes eating takeaway food and drinking alcohol, and just under an hour a day cooking or doing the washing up.

However the research also reveals discrepancies in how men and women are experiencing lockdown.

Men are doing more than an hour less unpaid labour than women each day, despite increasing their responsibilities during the coronavirus lockdown, the ONS data suggests.

Gueorguie Vassilev, senior research officer at the ONS, said: "These new findings show that not all households are experiencing the impacts of the coronavirus (Covid-19) pandemic in the same way.

"It will be interesting to see if time use reverts to a pre-pandemic pattern after this crisis is over, or if some changes will be lasting ones."

Time spent on childcare has risen by more than a third (35 per cent) during the lockdown, while care from older people such as grandparents has plummeted 90 per cent.

Men increased their unpaid labour, such as caring for children or adults, housework and volunteering, by 22 minutes to two hours and 25 minutes a day, the study found.

But while women's burden was reduced by 20 minutes a day, to three hours and 32 minutes, they are still giving an hour and seven minutes more of their time than men.

The Time Use survey compared data from March 28 to April 26 with figures from the previous study between April 2014 and December 2015.

Before the lockdown, the gap in unpaid work between men and women was an hour and 50 minutes.

People over 60, such as grandparents, are now providing an average of an hour and 44 minutes less childcare a week on average as a result of shielding and social distancing measures.

Those without children, such as friends or extended family members, reduced their caring by an hour and 13 minutes a week.

While men with children increased their amount of childcare by 58 per cent, they still did 15 minutes less a day than women.