Feel like you don’t get enough quality time with your family? Lots of folks share that sentiment and research shows we’re not getting a lot of time together, with the typical family spending just six hours together a week.
A poll of 2-thousand parents with kids at home reveals:
- The biggest things getting in the way of quality family time include working long hours (56%), homework (29%), household chores (27%), TV time (21%), social media use (20%) and after school activities (19%).
- But even when the whole family is all at home at the same time, 37% of parents say they don’t set aside specific time to spend with each other.
- A quarter of moms and dads would like to eat more family meals together to encourage conversation, as 42% admit they struggle to get chats going with their kids.
- When they do share meals, the most popular topics around the table include school (50%), TV shows (48%) and friendship (46%).
- Beyond meals, parents are most likely to chat with their kids in the car (57%), while putting them to bed (40%), and walking to and from school (38%).
- As for what qualifies as quality family time, eating together is the number one response (74%), followed by watching TV as a group (66%), and cooking (46%).
- Seven in 10 respondents try to set aside at least one day a week for their family to sit down and enjoy a meal together and Sunday is the day this happens most (44%).
- Things families do to encourage everyone to eat together include having kids help with the cooking (36%) and kids helping with meal planning (29%).
- Despite their efforts, most weeks, families eat together just four days a week.
Source: Study Finds
Photo: Getty Images