<p>[Why</a> Are You Spending More Time With Your Kids? - Freakonomics Blog - NYTimes.com](<a href=“Why Are You Spending More Time With Your Kids? - Freakonomics”>Why Are You Spending More Time With Your Kids? - Freakonomics)</p>
<p>"for Canada, where there appears to be less gradation in perceived quality across universities than here. "
HELLO? ALL of Canada’s colleges, big and small, are PUBLIC colleges. There are nop private colleges in Canada. There IS not as much difference in quality between different colleges in Canada as there is in the US between a rich, private college and a huge, publicly supported [ and these days in many cases underfunded ] University.</p>
<p>My take: Many of today’s parents were raised by parents who were not present very much, and may have been preoccupied with adult social concerns even when they were around. I had a “stay at home mom” who was not home much. She was very involved with her friends, and she and my father went out frequently, so we had babysitters at least twice a week at night. They often vacationed without the kids, and we stayed with grandparents while they were away.</p>
<p>Bottom line: I wanted to do it differently. I suspect others felt that way, too.</p>
<p>In contemporary American society it doesn’t make much sense to have kids unless you want to spend your time with them.</p>
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<p>What an excellent point. For what it’s worth, my kids are my favorite people in the whole world, and I love spending time with them.</p>
<p>Why are you spending more time with your kids?</p>
<p>Because… I like them?</p>
<p>I had a stay at home mom who truly was a stay at home mom and she was always there for me as was my dad. I wanted to provide the same environment for my kids.</p>
<p>Mafool, I was raised the same way and H never saw his parents. (loved his Nanny, though. I was more nervous to be introduced to her than the 'rents) We definitely have a more child friendly household but there is a balance. We still have date nights, etc.and try to have a social life when possible, but nothing like our parents.</p>
<p>We both grew up in single-parent households so we wanted to do a better job.</p>
<p>I think we are spending more time with our kids for the same reason that we are spending more on health care… as we get more productive and richer, we want more of the best things in life: health, family, etc. We don’t need more “stuff”.</p>
<p>My parents have always spent a lot of time with my brother and I (my mom always says that she may not have spoiled us with things, but that she “spoiled us with her time”). Part of this may be due to the fact I have a physical disability, but I think my mom always had it sort of planned that way, given that she worked literally until my brother was born and then quit her job, though she did work part-time when we were in elementary school and since I’ve gone away to college. Even now, when my parents travel out of the state, 90% of the time it is to visit my brother (working) or me (in college). Not because we ask (in fact, I’ve asked them numerous times not to come), but because it’s what they want to do–see us. My brother and I like this and don’t like this, depending on the day, but I’ve don’t think it’s hurt us, and most of time, I do legitimately enjoy my parents. They’re good people. :)</p>
<p>What a question! Because I can.</p>
<p>I enjoy, love and like them. they are fun and interesting. I love being their mom.</p>
<p>From as far back as I can remember (even when my dad was in the picture) it was just my mom, my brother and me. We spent summers traveling by car across country - to either visit family or move to a new location. After my parents’ divorce, we spent even more time together. My mom worked at our school, so we drove to/from every day, and we had the same holidays.</p>
<p>With my own family, I am very grateful for the years we lived overseas because it allowed us family time that we might not otherwise have. Mainly - with the exceptions of summer trips to the US - EVERY trip/vacation we took was as a family, with the ONLY purpose being to have fun and enjoy the destination. We had some wonderful times and have some fabulous (and amusing) memories. And even the summer travels - mainly with me and the boys - was great fun! We travel quite well together!</p>
<p>Overseas, we ate dinner together at least 5 nights a week. Now - with highschooler’s - it’s a little harder, but we still manage 3-4 nights a week. </p>
<p>I love my kids and while I look forward to them heading off to college…I know that I will also miss them dearly.</p>
<p>Ah, yes, dinners together. I’m fanatical about that. When I was a kid, my family’s meals were a bit scattershot. When we did eat at the same time, it wasn’t really together. We all sort of descended upon the kitchen, got our food, and then went to the television or wherever to eat, except on holidays.</p>
<p>Now I hate the idea of doing that, and my family has dinner together, at the dining room table, almost every night. I consider it sacred. No matter what else may be going on in our lives, that is the one opportunity we have every day to talk and share our thoughts and experiences for the day. My wife grew up the same way I did and now seems to share my devotion to family meals.</p>
<p>One of the hardest things about my son going away to his residential high school has been not having dinner with him every night, but we continue this tradition with our daughter at least, and when he does come home, it’s what I look forward to most.</p>
<p>Interesting article. geomom, you would expect to see the same effect in Canada if your hypothesis were correct. Apparently, it is not there in Canada. </p>
<p>My wife’s mom worked and they had a cook/nanny and someone who cleaned. My mom gave up her job while the kids were around. My wife was the one who scaled back her career when the kids wanted parents – she works at home (in a building we built next door) and at her request, we bought a house in walking distance of an elementary school, library, etc. So, she was almost always home when the kids got home. Not clear there is any correlation between what our parents did and what we chose to do.</p>
<p>Does the article’s hypothesis imply that one would spend less time with kids who don’t have the possibility of going to Harvard, Amherst or UTAustin or the like?</p>
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<p>That is how I read it, and I find the proposition offensive. “I’m going to spend time with my kids because they might be Ivy League material!” I hope few parents are so calculating.</p>
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<p>I agree, this is an insulting comment. It may be true for a small number of parents, but not many. </p>
<p>I spend time with my kids because I love them, I like them (most of the time) and I feel that being a family means spending time together. I am very lucky in that my parents spent a lot of time with me and my siblings when we were growing up in the 60’s and 70’s.</p>
<p>I never really thought about it before, but now I realize that I spent much more time with my kids than my parents spent with my sister and me because I don’t drink alcohol.</p>
<p>My parents drank a lot, even when they were at home. They also had social lives involving extensive drinking. This all took up a lot of time and meant that they were often in no condition to interact in any useful way with us. In fact, as soon as my sister and I were old enough to be aware of it, we went out of our way to avoid them when they had been drinking because we didn’t like their unpredictable behavior when they were in that condition.</p>
<p>This is a personal situation, and it probably doesn’t apply to a lot of other people. Still, maybe it isn’t entirely unique. Our parents’ generation was a heavy drinking group – much more so, I think, than ours.</p>
<p>I blame television. There is never anything good on, so you watch the kids instead.</p>
<p>My kids are much nicer (usually?) than most of the other people I know…and much more interesting…</p>