… the time parents spend with children has gone up for both women and men. Indeed, one study found that today’s generation of moms spend nearly twice as much time with their kids compared to moms 50 years ago.
As a dad who is struggling to juggle work, kids, housework and mental health all at the same time. I think this is a real problem that needs work on a societal level. Why are both parents needing to spend so much more time looking after their kids? Surely kids weren’t just neglected previously? I’m really not sure whats changed, but there are so many parents under so much stress these days.
The expectation is so much higher for parents now than it ever was on my parent’s generation. My parents were there, I felt loved, and they kept us alive, but they weren’t as involved in my life as I feel I have to be with my kids now. We were out playing most of the day and only saw each other in the mornings and at night alot of the time. My parents were doing whatever in the intervening hours. Getting left home alone was a common occurrence (for a few hours at a time).
Parents now though are being held to a higher standard and are even getting in trouble for things like leaving their kids unattended. That coupled with less resources and support available (time/money) and a more insidious business culture that’s trying to squeeze money from parents through their kids at every opportunity, makes it a fucking clusterfuck for parents in this day & age.
Gee, I wonder why the birthrate is going down?
And less organized activity. They might go out and play on the street. Now its off to an organized event or activity. I think there was a lot of supervised neglect before, though. Most kids still did fine but many didn’t. The thing is, a lot of kids are still ending up with mental health issues.
So I agree. Its a societal problem that needs a societal solution.
