Introduction to Home Management

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Chapter 4.1.1 Time Demands in Stages of Family Life Cycle:
The time demands change according to different stages of family life cycle. A family in the beginning stage with only two partners may have lesser time demands for the home maker. As the family size increases with the coming of children time management becomes most essential as she will be pressurized with lots of time demands for various activities. During the contracting stage of family life cycle the time demands of the home maker starts decreasing.
Understanding the demands on the homemaker's time during the different stages of the family life cycle will help families plan ahead and prepare themselves to meet new and changing time demands.
Stage I: The beginning family is a period of adjustment and child bearing for young homemakers. At this stage, family goals, time and work patterns, work habits, and the division of responsibilities between husband and wife are established. Unless the homemaker is employed outside the home, demands on her time are light.
Stage II: The expanding family brings new and heavy demands on both the parents. The coming of children requires the greatest adjustment in the time patterns of homemakers. Farm and city homemakers with children under a year old used from twenty one to twenty five hours a week in caring for their families according to some studies. They used about thirteen hours when the youngest child was one to two years old. Thereafter their time demands decreased steadily until the youngest child was about nine years old. While children are in grade school and high school, their time demands, although different, remain high. They center around the problems of guiding and directing children in assuming their places as responsible members of the family, of making time plans together and helping each one to evaluate their use of time. As children approach and reach adulthood, demands on the homemakers time depend on whether the children go to