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For as long as any one could remember, women were usually responsible for household chores where as men were the breadwinners. Over time, due to several factors, ranging from financial distress to the desire to have a career, women started to enter the workforce as well. Despite more work hours, a new study found that women are still generally more exhausted than men due to the fact that they work and deal with childcare at home. However, this report also found that even though the combination of childcare and work was exhausting, parents found it very meaningful.

In this report, the Pew researchers analyzed the answers from detailed government surveys that asked parents about their workloads both at home and at their jobs. The project, The American Time Use Survey reports, contains around an entire decade of information. The researchers discovered that on average, mothers felt more exhausted than fathers in all four categories, which were work, housework, childcare and leisure.

"Dads spend almost the same amount of time as moms in terms of playing with kids," Pew research associate Wendy Wang said according to the Los Angeles Times. "But they do less in other areas of child care."

Despite being exhausted, the researchers discovered that mothers were generally happier than fathers when they worked and cared for their children. Mothers were also happier during their leisure times and while doing housework. Furthermore, the researchers found that mothers felt that their paid work was more meaning and more stressful than fathers did. Regardless of the minor differences, both parents reported that caring for their children was a very meaningful task. Mothers, however, reported feeling twice as tired during childcare than fathers did.

"Time doing child care is where we found the biggest gap between fathers and mothers feeling exhausted," said Wang reported by the Washington Post. "And when you look at what mothers and fathers are actually doing, it shows why: Mothers spend much more time than fathers doing physical care - feeding the baby, giving baths. They do more managerial and educational care, all of which requires a lot of energy. Only when it comes to playing with kids do fathers do almost the same amount as mothers."

The report can be accessed on Pew's website here.