Are Parents Spending Enough Time with Their Kids These Days?

More and more people feel concerned about being too busy to spend time with their children. Certainly, many people worry that society is coming up short on this front. As Ellen Galinsky of the Families and Work Institute recently told The New York Times, “I’ve never found a group of parents who believe they are spending enough time with their kids.”


Of course, to ask whether parents spend enough time with their kids implies that there is a correct number of hours one should devote to this job.

Whilst we could always do more, maybe its important to focus on quality rather than quantity - so perhaps 2 hours on the Wii isn't necessarily as good as 1 hour doing something constructive?

Between the decline of housework and the rise of intense parenting, the interactive hours have crept up, pretty much across the board. Even if you’re working full-time, you’re probably spending more time interacting with your kids than your grandmother did.

That doesn’t necessarily mean it’s enough time. Many of us could turn off the TV and do more. But if we fret that modern parents aren’t spending enough time with their kids, it’s important to note that our forbears were, by this standard, hideous. And most of us don’t think they were. So maybe we’re doing okay too.