Hello, home office! A real joker for families

Michael Restin

27/3/2026

Translation: machine translated

People who work from home not only have children more often - they also do better at school. Two studies show what flexible working really changes for families.

The daycare centre calls. Child sick, please come and collect. You run out of the office, earning annoyed looks. You stumble guiltily into the frog group because it was already clear in the morning that it wouldn't last long today. You sit tensely on the bus because your feverish child is crying and the whole plan for the day is cancelled. Stress for everyone. I know this from before, when we had to cobble together work and shift schedules so that we could organise the family's everyday life.

Unfortunately, this is still part of everyday life for many people. At least for those who can't work remotely or whose employers still think working from home is a foreign or dirty word. I wouldn't want to be without this option and it's obviously the same for many - it's a cornerstone that families build on.

Home office increases the birth rate

The balancing act between work and childcare is one of the reasons why dual-earner couples think carefully about whether a child fits into their lives. How do we manage that? Do we only work to cover childcare costs? What reduction in the workload can we afford? These are the kinds of questions we face. Sometimes it doesn't take much for the decision to be made in favour of a family.

This is the conclusion of a study by the ifo Institute for Economic Research in collaboration with Stanford University. According to the study, the birth rate is 14 per cent higher on average in households with at least one day of home office per week. If both partners can work remotely, the effect is greatest, says ifo researcher Mathias Dolls. «This includes both the number of children already born and the number of children planned.»

The analysis focuses on respondents aged between 20 and 45 from 38 countries. Many nations still have room for improvement when it comes to flexible working. Germany, for example, would have the potential to record around 13,500 additional births if working from home was as accepted and widespread as in the USA.

The impact is greatest there: the birth rate is 18 per cent higher when both parents have the opportunity to work from home at least one day a week. In countries where childcare costs are high and distances are long, working from home is therefore a particularly powerful lever.

Switzerland is already one of the top 3 countries in Europe for remote working and anticipated the birth rate effect even during the coronavirus pandemic: after the lockdowns the birth rate skyrocketed.

In the meantime, it has fallen again, even to a historical low. Perhaps all children's wishes have already been fulfilled during the pandemic. Working from home is not a magic cure for demographic change. But it does have a positive effect on family life beyond the birth rate. That's how I feel. And this is also confirmed by data from other areas of life.

Less effort, better grades

The Netherlands is a home office stronghold. More than half of the labour force there works remotely and flexibly. The country is at the forefront of this trend and is therefore of interest to researchers. In the study «When Parents Work from Home», they delve deep into the Dutch data and investigate what happens when parents work at home instead of in the office.

They describe a kind of win-win situation:
On the one hand, there are no professional disadvantages for the parents. They can continue to advance their careers because the working model is socially accepted - just like part-time employment.

On the other hand, the children benefit. Their chances of transferring to grammar school, for example, increase by four and a half per cent. The best thing about this is that their performance improves without their parents having to neglect their jobs and become teachers. The overall positive effect on school performance is similar to that of significantly reducing school classes.

With the subtle difference that working from home costs the state nothing. The researchers explain the positive effect primarily through the more stable learning environment. Having the parents next door is a kind of passive control that obviously helps the children. Or you can discuss the most important things briefly at the lunch table instead of bending over tasks in the evening.

More time together, more equal opportunities

If commuting distances are eliminated and lunch breaks can be spent together, the time gained quickly adds up to several hours per day. Depending on the estimate, this means an average of two to three more hours with the child that were previously simply lost. And which can now be shared if at least one parent works from home.

The time saved varies from person to person. As does the answer to the question of who benefits and in what way. For example, the fact that women can work a higher workload. However a family wants to organise itself, working from home helps. I really enjoy it - especially when I think back to the time before. Anyone who has children and knows both worlds of work will just look back and shake their head.

Michael Restin

Senior Editor

Michael.Restin@digitecgalaxus.ch

Simple writer and dad of two who likes to be on the move, wading through everyday family life. Juggling several balls, I'll occasionally drop one. It could be a ball, or a remark. Or both.

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