The Contributions of a Stay-At-Home Parent

Your family’s life insurance protection should take into account the essential services provided by a stay-at-home parent every day.

Life insurance for your family’s breadwinner may seem like a no-brainer to cover lost income, but what about for a stay-at-home parent? Here are five everyday tasks that are contributed by a stay-at-home parent and should be considered when identifying your family’s life insurance coverage needs.

1. Child Care

On average, a stay-at-home parent spends 755 hours annually caring for and helping a child under the age of 6.¹ Professional child care is often an enormous expense. Nationally, the average cost of full-time care at a child care center for all children ages 0-4 is $9,589 per year.²

2. Laundry

The average American family does an average of 4.5 loads of laundry per week.³ That’s an estimated annual cost of $311 for energy and water.^4,5 Costs can vary greatly depending on your location, but the average price to pay a laundry service to wash, dry and fold clothes can range anywhere from $0.90 to $3 a pound.⁶

3. Cleaning and Housework

Buildup of dirt, dust, mold and other allergens may contribute to an unhealthy living environment. On average, a married stay-at-home parent spends between 4.69 to 10.85 hours per week doing housework.¹ Cleaning service professionals would earn more than $4,600 for a similar amount of work per year.⁷

4. Meal Preparation and Cooking

Food preparation and cleanup accounts for an average of eight hours of an American household’s week.¹ The average family spends $124.03 per week at the grocery store.⁸ A private cook performing the same tasks for a family would cost nearly $48,670 per year.⁷

5. Transportation

U.S. drivers spend an average of 294 hours of driving annually,⁹ with a typical married couple spending an estimated $1,900 annually on transportation costs for their young children.¹⁰

On average, a stay-at-home mom (parent) juggles over 90 hours of work per week which is equivalent to earning a median salary of $143,102.¹¹ Taking the value of the services a stay-at-home parent provides into consideration can help ensure you have adequate life insurance protection for your family today and in the future.
 

• American Time Use Survey, Bureau of Labor Statistics, 2016.
• The New America Care Report, Better Life Lab, New America, 2016.
• Energy Use at Home, 2015 Residential Energy Consumption Survey, U.S. Energy Information administration, 2015.
• Estimating Appliance and Home Electronic Energy Use, Energy Saver, U.S. Department of Energy, 2017.
• Indoor Water Use: Clothes Washer, Home Water Works, Alliance for Water Efficiency, 2017.
• Home Laundry Service: Don’t Do Your Own Laundry, Angie’s List, 2016.
• Occupational Employment and Wages, May 2016, Bureau of Labor Statistics, 2016.
• National Household Food Acquisition and Purchase Survey, USDA, 2017.
• American Driving Survey: 2014-2015, AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety, 2016.
• Expenditures on Children by Families, 2015, USDA, 2017.
• 2016 Stay-at-Home Mom Salary, Salary.com, 2016.

ALIC36718 (exp. 12/19)