Interior Solution

More than once I have been asked: “do you still have your babysitter come in the summer (when you don’t have classes)”? I always answer: “yes”, and quickly add, “I have to work on research.”

That answer is half true. The truthful part is I do spend quite a bit of time working on projects in the summer. The part that I tend not to reveal is that I also read, study French, go on lunch dates with Chris, and do Chinese grocery shopping when the babysitter is playing with my children. Part of me feels guilty. Shouldn’t I maximize my time with children, instead of pursuing leisure? Part of me feels wasteful. Shouldn’t I be a better saver by cutting unnecessary childcare expenses?

Child care, like cleaning, cooking, and elder care, can be seen as a form of home production. The work can be done by household members or by purchasing the service in the market. In my working paper, “Elder Care in an Aging Population: The Impact of Parental Care Needs on Adult Children“, I write: “In the standard home production models, the cost and preference to substitute home production with purchased services determine household consumption and time allocation decisions.”

The cost part is easy. If someone’s opportunity cost of time (usually measured by wage) is greater than the price of the service, she is more likely to outsource the work. That is why statistically, higher-wage mothers tend to work more and buy more child care. The preference part is tricky. How much time do you enjoy spending with your children, versus the next best alternative? I admire Emily Oster’s honesty in her answer. She writes in her book “Cribsheet”: “I’ve figured out that my happiness-maximizing allocation is something like eight hours of work and three hours of kids a day.” Even I, as a working mother, find that answer baffling, and almost cruel. But I don’t think I am too far from that. I love my children, but I don’t love spending all my time with them. I find myself much happier if I get away for a few hours.  In fact, I’m greatly enjoying one such break from them as I type these words.  I usually return refreshed and ready to play.

I don’t feel guilty about my preference. I do wonder if I am too selfish by acting on it. Somehow as soon as I became a parent, I felt this internal and external pressure to prioritize my children. Many times, my own needs and wants yield to theirs. But what is the guilt-free balanced point in these tradeoffs? There are numerous books on how to raise a happy child. Not a single one on how to become a happy parent. Do we still even matter?

In choosing between two goods/activities for utility maximization, if someone chooses all of one good and none of the other, economists call it a “corner solution”. Stay-at-home moms and full time working moms are both examples of this. If the chosen outcome is a combination of both goods, we call it an “interior solution”. I am grateful that my field allows me to choose such a solution.  I move my work around (such as grading in the evenings and research in the summer) so that I am away from children about 20 hours a week. In the summer, “work” often takes the form of reading, learning, and recharging. These things make me a happier and more relaxed person — at the cost of my less engaging parenting hours.  That’s a tradeoff I need not feel sheepish about.