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Parents now spend twice as much time with their children as 50 years ago

economist.com

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Re: Parents now spend twice as much time with their children as 50 years ago

#151

Post by valuearb »

mod wrote: post #103
btilly wrote: post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes, you will. http://reason.com/blog/2015/06/11/11-year-old-boy-played-in-... http://www.nydailynews.com/news/national/neighbor-calls-cops... https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2016/apr/22/canadian-mo... Do you have any more "corrections" to make?

That first one (the only one I read) is such a nightmare. Just wow. I live in the boonies and my kid gets to roam far and wide by himself. There's some risk involved, but it's never crossed my mind that I'm being negligent. I think it would be more negligent to keep him indoors--not that it could qualify as criminally negligent in any sane universe.

When I was 6 years old my mom used to let me ride my bike all over town (a 5 mile jaunt) all day long. When I was 8, me and my friends used to walk 4 miles to school to play basketball, then spend rest of day playing in woods. Eventually when I was around 13 one of my friends lost an eye due to our experiments with explosives, but other than that we all survived.

Maybe I should call CPS on my mom. What's the statute of limitations.

Re: Parents now spend twice as much time with their children as 50 years ago

#152

Post by colordrops »

junkscience2017 wrote: post #22
tomc1985 wrote: post #2

Probably because helicopter parenting is in vogue (at least in the US). It is seriously messed up that you can have CPS called on you for letting your kid wander freely in the neighborhood

I can't get my kids out of the house. I try. All of their friends are on SnapChat and/or Steam games. No one leaves their rooms. It is really depressing. Kids are not getting fresh air anymore.

Why did you give them continuous phone and steam access?

Re: Parents now spend twice as much time with their children as 50 years ago

#153

Post by kinkrtyavimoodh »

btilly wrote: post #73
dougmccune wrote: post #63

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Everyone is pointing out various news articles that show that people do indeed call CPS when you let your kids play by themselves at a playground. I won't dispute that it happens, but to me this is similar to how we view other low-probability events. If I let my kids walk to school or the playground by themselves there's also a chance they can get hit by a car crossing the street. I can teach them safety rules and ar…

Many are sharing personal experiences as well. I have not had CPS called on me. But I do have friends who dealt with that. In fact I know more people whose had CPS called on them than I do people who have been in car accidents. So it doesn't seem to be a super low probability event. What also has me concerned is that my kids are heading towards puberty. Over 1/4 of all registered sex offenders committed their crime w…

I am not sure what the sex offender thing had to do with CPS being called on you. Were you giving another example of a low probability event?

Re: Parents now spend twice as much time with their children as 50 years ago

#154

Post by marze »

kelukelugames wrote: post #5

> One analysis of 11 rich countries estimates that the average mother spent 54 minutes a day caring for children in 1965 but 104 minutes in 2012. Men do less than women, but far more than men in the past: their child-caring time has jumped from 16 minutes a day to 59. I spend 100+ minutes every day changing diapers. Actually that's not true, most of my time is spent trying to put the stupid newborn to go to sleep. I…

Tip: use orange spectrum lighting exclusively after sunset in the house. Huge benefit.

Re: Parents now spend twice as much time with their children as 50 years ago

#155

Post by conanbatt »

bpicolo wrote: post #138
conanbatt wrote: post #108

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Kids today learn faster than we did also. One they he will fix the breaker box for you and its GG dad. I truly consider that my kid will be able to use the internet against me in ways inimaginable. Its exciting!

"Man I have no idea where we keep the key for this thing"

"Dont worry dad, I'll know how to pick locks in a sec"

Re: Parents now spend twice as much time with their children as 50 years ago

#156

Post by ashark »

junkscience2017 wrote: post #107
tn_ wrote: post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How old were your kids before they got their smartphones/computers?

in our area, most kids seem to be carrying iPhones by 4th grade. sad, but there it is.

My wife's a teacher. ~1/2 of the kids around here have smartphones by 2nd or 3rd grade, all but the children of "weirdos" (maybe 2-3%) have them by 5th. The schools don't make them leave them at home anymore like they did back when regular ol' dumb phones started to show up in kids' possession. Sometimes kids will be texting during class and it's their friggin' parents they're texting, as in, their parents contacted them during class. This is not as rare an occurrence as one might hope. Teachers can't confiscate them for practically any reason because most parents freak out if they do. No parental support for discipline basically = teachers can't do it (it's ineffective and a bigger headache than it's worth).

This at lower- to middle-middle class schools, not the rich ones. And we're deep in flyover country, not anywhere trendy.

Re: Parents now spend twice as much time with their children as 50 years ago

#157

Post by Pulcinella »

shostack wrote: post #142
dsp1234 wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'll just go let my best friend know that the several CPS inspections she had to endure last year when she left her kids at the park unattended were not real. Anyone can call CPS for just about anything, and having someone pick through your home and point out every little flaw, with the threat of taking your kids away is a real issue. Please don't downplay it, and don't downplay how shitty people can be to each other…

I'm not very familiar with how CPS works and the law there--do you have any right to refuse unless they present some evidence that warrants such invasive next steps? Seems like a passive-aggressive parental version of Swatting someone.

Don’t know what it’s like on the “receiving end” but in my state when I notify CPS it’s a very, very involved process that usually takes at least an hour. You can do it by phone or internet form and both require extensive information about the child, parents, family members, address, etc. It’s definitely not something you can just do because you don’t like your neighbors and want them arrested in five minutes.

Re: Parents now spend twice as much time with their children as 50 years ago

#159

Post by jotux »

callmeed wrote: post #72

Here's a few random guesses at causation: 1. Kindergarten redshirting 2. Most Kindergartens in the US now are half-day (EDIT: this is false) 3. Helicopter parenting 4. Family & Medical Leave Act ('93) + Longer maternity/paternity leave allowances by employees 5. An increase in single-parent households on some sort of welfare/assistance program (i.e. the single parent is at home and cannot work) 6. Increase in the num…

Another guess: More time with parents might correlate to less time with other family members. Grandparents and other immediate family are working and living longer which means parents don't have free childcare and do it themselves.

Re: Parents now spend twice as much time with their children as 50 years ago

#160

Post by Spooky23 »

TheAdamAndChe wrote: post #47
dragonwriter wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Fathers can be around without being married to the mother.

Yes. Do you really think most unmarried families have both mother and father in the household, though? Regular contact with the father would be a lot more difficult if he's not around except on weekends.

Poor working class people?

Absolutely.

It's impossible to get many benefits like WIC, rent assistance, heating assistance, etc if you are married, and it's difficult to afford childcare if mom is working and family cannot chip in, especially when you consider that many industries don't provide full-time jobs or sick time. It's cheaper for mom to stop working due to the child and bridge the gap with public assistance until the kids are around age 3, where there are more/cheaper daycare slots.

My wife worked for a utility with alot of blue collar guys -- easily 30% of the guys there had stay-at-home girlfriends with the kids. Not all of them were on public assistance, but people making $30-40k can't afford infant/toddler daycare.

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