New research by the University of Michigan concludes that children spent four to six more hours per week with their parents in 1997 than they did in 1981. In 1997, children ages 3 to 12 spent about 31 hours a week with their mothers, a gain of six hours over 1981, and 23 hours a week with their fathers, a gain of four hours. Sanberg and others posit that the time increase is the result of a change in attitude that has occurred in recent years.
Parents expect and demand more time with their kids, they say.
That may well be true, but for those wants and expectations to actually make things happen our loving parents need some leverage. Fast forward to the relative boom times of the late '90s and employers were bending over backwards to keep good workers. And the best way to keep changes like these coming is not with more new government mandates, but with fewer. Fewer regulations to tie down businesses and eat up profits so that mom and dad can go out there and cut the best deal they can. For the children.