Based on Research that the New York Times calls "the most unusually voyeuristic anthropology study ever conducted," this groundbreaking book provides an unprecedented glimpse into modern-day American families. In a study by the UCLA Sloan Center on Everyday Lives and Families (CELF), researchers tracked the daily lives of thirty-two dual-earner middle-class Los Angeles families between 2001 and 2004. The results are startling-and enlightening. Fast-Forward Family makes it clear that, in striving to raise healthy, happy, and successful families, dual-earner parents must navigate a moral road map that forces them to reconcile idealized ways of being both parent and partner, with on-the-ground, practical, time-pressed, and improvisational management of housework and child care. The book captures the big and little dramas of daily life, including the piling up of homework, laundry, dishes, and emails. Although there are also moments of connection, affection, and care, it's evident that life for twenty-first-century working parents is frenetic-with extended work hours, children's activities, chores, meals to prepare, errands to run, and bills to pay. On top of all this is the necessity to coordinate complex family schedules. Fast-Forward Family shines a light on a variety of issues that face American families: the differing stress levels among parents; the problem of excessive clutter in the American home; the importance (and decline) of the family meal; the vanishing boundaries that once separated work and home life; and the challenges for parents as they try to reconcile ideals regarding what it means to be a good parent, a good worker, and a good spouse.

Book jacket.