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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

#31

Post by dsp1234 »

Pulcinella wrote: post #9
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

You won’t have CPS called on you for letting your children wander and play in the neighbor. Please don’t spread nonsense. Edited with my response to everyone depositing articles about the Meitivs: Nobody “called CPS on” the Meitivs. Somebody called the polic because they saw the children wandering around a parking garage (not a park like in many of the news stories. See [1].) The police officer then called CPS severa…

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.

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

#32

Post by metalliqaz »

Pulcinella wrote: post #9
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

You won’t have CPS called on you for letting your children wander and play in the neighbor. Please don’t spread nonsense. Edited with my response to everyone depositing articles about the Meitivs: Nobody “called CPS on” the Meitivs. Somebody called the polic because they saw the children wandering around a parking garage (not a park like in many of the news stories. See [1].) The police officer then called CPS severa…

I agree with the spirit of your argument, but I am pretty sure that this actually has happened.

https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2015/04/13/parent...

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

#33

Post by seanmcdirmid »

baldfat wrote: post #7

The problem is that 90% of the time the parents are now on their phones. Seriously I find myself on my phone and not interacting with my kids at times and I am super sensitive about phones. I don't allow phones during meals, during family time and not when someone is talking with you. I break my own rules a ton :(

My 11 month old already sees my iPhone as a threat and goes for it with his teeth whenever he sees me using it. Or he just wants to play with it himself; at anyrate it is very difficult to use my phone around him now.

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

#34

Post by skrebbel »

baldfat wrote: post #7

The problem is that 90% of the time the parents are now on their phones. Seriously I find myself on my phone and not interacting with my kids at times and I am super sensitive about phones. I don't allow phones during meals, during family time and not when someone is talking with you. I break my own rules a ton :(

For me the solution was to make my phone super boring. It's basically a dumbphone with WhatsApp (because where I live WhatsApp == texting). It does have a browser but I can't get to it easily (basically i have to start some other app and trick it into starting a browser). No social networks. No games, etc. Maps is the most interactive app on my phone, by far. All that other stuff is for the computer.

This works well for me (except weird quirks eg I sometimes take my laptop to the toilet). It forces me to consciously choose to "dive in" (because opening a computer takes a bit more time as well as physical space).

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

#36

Post by DoubleCribble »

Pulcinella wrote: post #9
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

You won’t have CPS called on you for letting your children wander and play in the neighbor. Please don’t spread nonsense. Edited with my response to everyone depositing articles about the Meitivs: Nobody “called CPS on” the Meitivs. Somebody called the polic because they saw the children wandering around a parking garage (not a park like in many of the news stories. See [1].) The police officer then called CPS severa…

A quick Googling says otherwise. Here's one of many. https://www.cbsnews.com/news/protective-services-called-on-m...

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

#37

Post by gajomi »

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

This seems improbable. Of course it depends a bit on the number of hours required to effectively helicopter parent, but the data for USA mothers indicates something like a 100% increase in time spent since 1965 resulting in two total hours a day, which seems far to little for any kind of omnipresence (similar results for fathers). Of course, these numbers are "on average" so you might argue that there are helicopter parenting subpopulations contributing to this increase, but this data can't provide evidence for or against that. The data in Denmark (where there really has been an orders of magnitude increase) and in France (with the decrease) seems like interesting places to look into. It could be that systematic reporting biases have a significant role to play in these results.

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

#38

Post by nicholasjarnold »

I don't have any peer reviewed studies to point to here, but I do remember reading about both the stagnation of middle-class incomes and the rising cost of childcare in recent years.

If you take those ideas as fact and couple them with the people commenting on the 'parenting police state' it makes sense that we're seeing an increase in time spent with children.

Will this increased parenting time lead to humans that are better or worse prepared to cope with and thrive in the world after leaving the nest?

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

#39

Post by [deleted] »

Pulcinella wrote: post #9
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

You won’t have CPS called on you for letting your children wander and play in the neighbor. Please don’t spread nonsense. Edited with my response to everyone depositing articles about the Meitivs: Nobody “called CPS on” the Meitivs. Somebody called the polic because they saw the children wandering around a parking garage (not a park like in many of the news stories. See [1].) The police officer then called CPS severa…

[deleted]

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

#40

Post by aidos »

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…

Who am I to judge, but it's paternity leave for a reason - and not so your "stupid newborn" can get in the way of learning a new hobby.

EDIT it was a lot less like a joke originally. Apologies for the offense caused by missing that.

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