Atypical Working Hours: Consequences for Childcare Arrangements

This paper analyses the care arrangements of those dual-earner couples and lone-parent families who are under strong pressure because of atypical and unpredictable working hours. In these situations, the parents have to invent day-to-day, week-to-week solutions for the care needs of their children, mobilizing all available formal and informal resources. The objective is to understand the different ways in which families manage such atypical working hours in three different countries (Finland, France and Portugal). What are the main strategies of the parents in facing this pressure? Do these include negotiations between the parents on the division of tasks, mobilization of ex-partners, grandparents, brothers and sisters, neighbours, and the different solutions offered by the formal resources? In the first part of the paper, we present the challenges and consequences of atypical working hours for families and institutions in Europe, in particular in Finland, France and Portugal. We then analyse some of the childcare arrangements as well as the impact of the provision of childcare services.