hankyoreh

staff reporter)

By Jin Myeong-seon, staff reporter

Last year, Ahn Hong-yeon, 37, a woman living in Gimpo New Town, Gyeonggi Province, a bedroom community near Seoul, finally managed to have a child after six years of marriage. She would like to have a second child before it‘s too late, but it’s not easy to find time to be intimate with her husband, who doesn‘t get home until after 11 pm. Even when she figures out when she’s ovulating, her chances of getting pregnant are low since she and her husband only have intercourse once or twice a month.

A survey conducted by the Hankyoreh of 59 full-time homemakers in their 30s and 40s from an online message board for homemakers in Gimpo New Town found that nearly half of respondents barely have a chance to see their husbands. The women had 1.6 children on average, and their average age was 36.5 years.

The majority of these women are still able to have children, but many of them are virtually sexless. When asked about how often they have sexual intercourse, 25 out of 55 said just once a month.

Staying late at the office and working for long hours has an effect on childbirth for full-time housewives who are not working alongside their husbands. On average, the husbands of the respondents leave home at 7:03 am and don’t return until 9:12 pm. In other words, the average time these husbands spend at home each day is less than 10 hours. Husbands are only able to leave the office on time an average of 1.5 times per week.

Aside from time spent sleeping, these families only had about one or two hours a day to spend together. Criticism that South Korean families are not good at communicating, which tends to suggest that family members are not even trying to talk to each other, fails to accurately reflect the fact that people simply don’t have enough time at home because they stay at work so late.

Indeed, husbands in the survey only spend an average of 45.4 minutes with their children on average each day. Husbands and wives had even less time to talk together, about 39 minutes.

With key money for apartments going up in the Seoul region, young couples have moved to new towns on the outskirts of the capital. As commute times get longer, these couples are facing even more difficulties.

“My husband rides a commuter bus to Gwanghwamun [in central Seoul], and so we intentionally found an apartment at the place where the bus departs. I guess this makes the ride easier for my husband, but it also means that he has to spend three hours a day on the bus,” said Song Yun-ah, 33, a homemaker living in Gimpo New Town.

Sixteen of the respondents (27.1%) said that their husbands got back from work after 11 pm on average, and nine (15.3%) said that their husbands returned home after midnight. The average time that respondents wished their husbands would get home was 6:51 pm, or 2 hours and 21 minutes earlier than the actual time they return (9:12 pm).

When asked what they would do if their husbands got home on time, a significant number of respondents said they would like to eat dinner together. A number of other respondents wanted their husbands to help them take care of the kids. Some wished their husbands could read a book to the kids while they did the dishes, and others wished they could help them put the kids to bed.

The level of life satisfaction was generally low for full-time homemakers who have to take full responsibility for the housework and children because of their husbands’ long work hours. When asked to assess their family’s quality of life, respondents gave an average of 59.6 points out of 100 points. That’s a failing score.

Please direct questions or comments to [english@hani.co.kr]