How to Raise Good Children in a Bad World

It's 11 o'clock at night and Ted and Joyce know where their children are: safely in bed. At 11 o'clock in the morning they also know where their children are: underfoot.

Ted and Joyce, who both work at home, see plenty of their children. Sometimes they feel they see too much of Steve, 5, and Millie, 2, even though they can afford an efficient nanny to help look after them.

From Ted and Joyce to the single-parent groupings at the other end of the family spectrum, more and more parents are like one mother I know who said of her family's way of life: "We're so busy running here and there and taking the kids to different activities that we hardly ever have time to just sit and talk with each other."

Running out of time (and money)

A changing job market, increasing cost of living and rising tax burdens have resulted in parents spending more time earning a living and less time with their children. In just the past 20 years the average workweek jumped from 41 hours to 48. People with incomes of more than $50,000 work an average of 52 hours a week, while small-business owners are putting in more than 55 hours a week.

One result, according to various studies, is that parents in the 1990s spend 40 percent less time with their children than their parents did in the 1960s and 1970s.

"A lot of times both parents are working full time away from the home, in some instances working 50 to 60 hours a week on two different jobs just to get
by financially," notes Dr. Frank Vitro, a professor at Texas Woman's University with a special interest in moral education. "Parents can become so overworked and stressed from problems at the office that they don't have any emotional energy left for their children when they come home at night."

Read the full article at www.gnmagazine.org/issues/gn11/raisegoodchildren.htm

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