Purpose: When children are living at home, parents are interdependent of each other to care for them. Higher work flexibility than partner might provide better opportunity for recovery, but might also mean more responsibility for work at home or at paid work. It is possible that mothers and fathers use their relative work flexibility differently. The aim with this study was to investigate 1) the association between parent´s relative work flexibility, compared with their partner, and emotional exhaustion 2) gender differences in emotional exhaustion 3) the interaction between relative work flexibility and gender in relation to emotional exhaustion and 4) differences between mothers and fathers in time use.

Methodology: Mothers and fathers in paid work in Sweden with children living at home was included (n=2 911). Cross-sectional data was collected in 2012.

Results: The results indicated that 1) having higher flexibility than partner was associated with lover levels of emotional exhaustion; 2) mothers reported higher levels of emotional exhaustion than fathers 3) relative flexibility seemed to influence fathers emotional exhaustion more than mothers 4) differences in time use between mothers and fathers was found.

Limitations: Ideally, data from the same family would have been gathered and relative flexibility would have been measured in a more nuanced way.

Research/Practical Implications: Highlighting the importance of consider work flexibility in its family context.

Originality/Value: The first study, as far as we know, that investigates the relative work flexibility and emotional exhaustion among mothers and fathers.