Making Parenting a (National) Priority

Experts Warn of Dire Consequences When Kids Don’t Get Enough of Their Parents’ Time
We rush through our morning routine. We rush our kids off to school. We work ... and worry … all day. We rush home. But by then, we’re tired, and there’s not much left to give. This is the reality for many American families today; our kids get the leftovers of us.

Children are paying a high price to keep their parents on the job in the American workplace.






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Recent evidence confirms that the time children spend with their parents is vital to their healthy development – but kids aren’t getting enough of it, according to researchers in a wide range of fields. The growing demands of the workplace are a major factor, the researchers say. Employers are beating out children in the contest for parents’ time. The result – already suspected by moms and dads and borne out by recent studies – is that, in many cases, children suffer diminished coping skills, school performance and even health.

In the last 30 years, children have lost approximately 22 hours a week of their parents’ time, according to a recent study by the Council of Economic Advisors. In 2000, nearly 65 percent of women with children under the age of 6 were in the workforce. And 68 percent of married, working moms put in 40 or more hours per week at their jobs, according to surveys by the AFL-CIO and the International Labor Organization.

Working parents are well aware of the stress that comes with raising a child while holding down a job. What may not be as apparent is just how much employers – and the culture of the American workplace – determine the amount and the kind of time that children get from their parents. Time spent on the job is only part of the problem, says Ellen Galinsky, president and co-founder of the Families and Work Institute, a nonprofit research organization based in New York. The hectic and demanding pace of work today leaves parents physically and emotionally depleted by the time they get home.

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