Many parents face the challenge of balancing work and family life, especially with preschool
children at home. The COVID-19 pandemic, with the global closure of childcare institutions
right from the first wave, has only deepened this challenge, leaving parents to fend for
themselves concerning childcare virtually overnight. In my thesis, I first started with the
theoretical part, where initial research showed that most of the care burden during the pandemic
fell on women with young children, who had to stay at home or work remotely to take care of
their children, and who also had to cope with an increased amount of household chores, which
made balancing work and family life even more stressful and tiring at the time. In the empirical
part, I conducted a quantitative survey among parents of children attending the Hans Christian
Andersen Kindergarten during the pandemic. I found that it was mainly women who took up
remote work to take care of their children at home during the closure of the kindergarten. While
men helped with household chores, the women were still largely on their own at home. The
study also showed that families found it more difficult to balance work and family life in the
first wave than in the subsequent waves, that partners supported each other relatively well, and
that the stressful period did not affect family relationships. Most were satisfied with work
adjustments and employer support but reported that government measures during the pandemic
did not facilitate work-family balance.
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