The aim of this master's thesis is to study the leisure time of parents of children in the preschool period, which could encourage parents to attribute greater importance to leisure time, as it is important and also related to other areas of life. From the perspective of social work, social workers could encourage best practise examples of quality leisure activities and reinforce the activities that enable parents to engage in more accessible and quality leisure activities. In the theoretical introduction, I define parenthood, where I explain the terms biological and social parenthood. I go on to present challenges of parents of preschool children, where I focus on gender inequality, the coordination of private and professional lives and the concepts of child-centricity and proactive childhood. I also address parental stress and overwhelmingness as well as leisure time of parents of children in the preschool period, where I define leisure time and write about family and leisure time. In the last chapter of the theoretical introduction, I detail the role of social work in regard to the leisure time of parents of children in the preschool period. In the empirical part of the thesis, based on a qualitative study I conducted on a non-randomised sample, I present the leisure time of ten parents of children in the preschool period. I determined that the definition of leisure time and leisure activities are related to the place of residence of parents of preschool children. I also determined that residential circumstances are related to the support recognised by parents of the preschool children in terms of leisure time. In addition, I found that the restrictions stated by the parents of preschool children in regard to leisure activities are related to their own contribution, which entails organising and planning in advance, scheduling daily activities in a way where there is enough leisure time, well-spent leisure time and spontaneity. Finally, I determined that women have less leisure time for themselves and consequently wish to have more of it.
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