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The 42-year-old is one of many Australian parents who say working from home and other flexible arrangements have become essential to the smooth functioning of their households and satisfaction with their family life.
“I think in 2025 [work from home is] crucial,” she says.
I enjoy being able to be there for all those milestones [for my daughter], I don’t want someone else to be having more time with my child than I am.
“[It gives me time to] do those things that make me a good mum, and a good employee, and a good wife, and happy within myself, so I think that’s really important,” she says.
Cost of living pressures force both parents to work
For many women, staying home to look after their children is no longer an option.
We are no longer in a situation where we’ve got that male breadwinner — single income earner — in a family where a woman stays home and does everything by way of unpaid work.
According to the property listing company Domain, property prices have jumped by 777 per cent over the past three decades in some capital cities, such as Sydney, where the median price of a house is now $1.7 million — compared with a median of $192,819 in March 1993.
House prices in Sydney increased by 777 per cent between 1993 and 2025, according to data from Domain. Source: SBS News
But wage growth over a similar period has not kept pace, which has put extra strain on families. Wages in NSW grew by 131.1 per cent between September 1997 and March 2025.
Wages growth in Australia has failed to keep pace with the increased cost of housing. Source: SBS News
Women are more likely to work now
He explains: “77 per cent of women in their early 30s are in the labour force — it was less than a third a generation ago.”
Employment for women aged in their 30s once dropped sharply but now it barely dips. Source: SBS News
Based on the Australian Bureau of Statistics’ Time Use Survey, conducted between November 2020 and July 2021, McCrindle notes that a third of Australians also report feeling rushed or pressed for time often or always.
Women aged 35 to 44 years were the group most likely to report feeling rushed for time (55 per cent).
“The only way to really make all of that work is to have less time conducting that commute, and that’s where I think work from home achieves that,” McCrindle says.
Work from home has become a lifeline for parents
“[There’s] no clock watching, so you’re not making sure people arrive at a certain time or leave at a certain time,” she says.
I’ve heard of businesses saying you need to prove that you’ve got child care — somebody in the house helping you with the child — in order to be paid for this day of work.
“I know a lot of women in senior roles who have the house husband or the au pair, but I don’t want to miss out on that time with my child,” she says.
Eb Yusuf is ambitious about her career but doesn’t want to miss out on spending time with her daughter. Source: Supplied
Yusuf’s heard messages directed towards women that if they want to be a boss or CEO, they need to be in the office.
“Whether it’s [because I’m clocking on] outside of work hours or whether I just do it quicker … because I’m a mum and I need to be efficient with my time.”
‘I just love my life so much more’
“I was gone from the house for like 13 hours a day or something ridiculous. [I was home at] 7 o’clock at night,” she says.
I remember standing in the bus line looking around at everyone [one] night … thinking … ‘I don’t want to do this for the rest of my life. This is horrible’.
“If I had to go into the office, I would definitely go in for the three days only,” she says.
Kerrie Cullimore loves her life after working from home enabled her family to move to Port Stephens. Source: Supplied
Cullimore also appreciates that her workplace allows staff members who work from the office to leave around 2.30pm to pick up their children from school.
“It’s just so lovely to work for a company that is really accommodating to parents, and understands that parents can be more part of their children’s life.”
Push to get workers back in the office
“When you’ve got people that are in survival mode and they see [work from home] as a solution to it — and a solution that is fair — [it’s] pretty hard to come out and argue against that,” he says.
Dutton is not the only leader trying to roll back work-from-home arrangements.
Among employers planning to mandate in-office days this year, around 40 per cent believed this would help improve productivity.
The benefits of working from home
“Risks can be managed but we should keep an eye on them and be ready to intervene if necessary.”
“While this percentage may not always remain so high, it is inevitable that more Australians will work from home.”
Work from home is unlikely to disappear
This is part one of a series looking at how modern families are balancing the pressures of working life. Next week, we will look at whether other workplace changes can make a difference.
