Parents Are Spending More Quality Time With Their Children Than Ever

The U.S. Census Bureau has released a 2009 study called “A Child’s Day”.  Representatives spoke with 42,000 households about their children, their lives and the time they spend together. It’s a lot of information, so get ready to start hearing all kinds of new statistics and factoids about our families. So far, the results are pretty exciting!

In the last decade, parents have started spending more time reading to their children! Especially among lower-income households, the growth in reading time for toddlers and pre-schoolers has been great. All this reading advocacy really seems to be paying off. There’s still a long way to go. 45% of lower-income parents are reading, up from 37% ten years ago.  However, that still means that 55% of children in lower-income households aren’t being read to on a regular basis. But the growth in this area is inspiring.

In fact, despite a rough economy and plenty of financial stress, parents are spending more quality time with their children in general. They are having more in depth discussions. They are eating more family meals around the dinner table. All these statistics point to more involved and educated parents as a whole. Quality time is important for children’s development, and it looks like more parents are making it a priority.

Let’s all get encouraged this new data! Reading is important for our children’s development. Stressing that data and communicating it to new parents seems to be working. Let’s keep talking, keep advocating and keep it a priority in our own lives.

(Photo: Thinkstock)

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