New York: Amy Rottier, a Gen Xer, drove to a mall two decades ago to shop for her children. Helen, her millennial daughter and a student for a doctorate, can shop online for anything she needs using an iPad.
These women are 50 years old and 25 years respectively. They show the rapid pace of change in the average day. These changes were revealed by the US Bureau of Labor Statistics in a recent study.
The study revealed that Generation X women were more likely than other generations to care for their children, do yard work, and clean up after them. The study found that millennial women are more likely to exercise, have leisure time on computers, take care of pets, and sleep well.
This report is based on American Time Use Survey data and captures how people lived between 23 and 38 years. Amy Rottier was born in 2003. Helen Rottier’s daughter, that was in 2003. This was a year before the global pandemic of coronaviruses dramatically changed patterns of living. This report shows both changes for women and men.
Both generations worked the same amount, but men worked more hours than women due to women being more likely to work part-time. Both generations spent the same amount of time on leisure and sporting activities. However, Gen Xers were more likely to have children and their own homes than millennials.
Despite watching television being the most popular leisure activity of both generations, millennial men spend 18 minutes less per day watching TV than their Gen X counterparts. It seems that they have moved their time to playing video games. On average, millennials participated in more sports, recreation, and exercise than their Gen X counterparts.
According to the report, technology changes influenced people’s choices. In 2003, social media was still in its infancy. Smartphones weren’t widely available and Cyber Monday wasn’t invented yet by retail marketing gurus.
“Millennials have an advantage because they can do many things from their own home without having to get in their car or go to a bank or store. It also saves time. Michelle Freeman, a senior economist at Bureau of Labor Statistics, who wrote the report, said that Generation X didn’t have this option when they were their age. “It is impossible to ignore technological advances from 2003 to 2019. That is certainly a factor.”
Also, decisions about having children were made.
Amy Rottier, a mother of five children and husband Eric, said, “Taking care of children, that was what was the majority of my spare time,” in Madison, Wisconsin. “Lunch time for me at that point was my husband telling to take a shower and then he would get the kids ready to go and set them up.
Helen Rottier, a Chicago resident in her 20s, believes that having children is far away.
She said, “I’m still working towards my degree, but then I want to settle into my career.” “With my friends we are at the same age as our parents when we were born and we don’t plan on having children yet.”
Millennials were less likely to have children than Generation X members who were born between 1965-1980. Millennials were born between 1981-1996 and had higher educations and were less likely to marry than Gen Xers.
Generation Xers spent more time buying goods. This is likely due to the fact that shopping in a physical store takes more time than online shopping. Millennial women read less for pleasure than Generation X women. Freeman stated that reading time has decreased for all age groups over the past 20 years, from an average of 22 minutes per day in 2003 to an average of 16 minutes in 2019.
Millennials also slept 22 more minutes per night than their Gen X counterparts. Freeman suggested that this could reflect changing attitudes regarding sleep.
She said that her parents were baby boomers, and they worked hard. “Sleeping too much was considered lazy. “We now recognize that getting more sleep is good for our bodies.
According to the report, millennials did twice as many animal and pet care activities in a day without having children like their Gen X peers. There’s also the time difference in gardening and maintaining a yard. Millennials spent less than Gen Xers on average, due to their lower likelihood of owning a home.
Helen Rottier stated, “I don’t know if it will ever be a house that has a lawn,” It may change in the future but for now I don’t see any value in a lawn. Why would I want to care for a lawn?
