Orphans with Parents

Parents spend only 19 minutes a day looking after their children. This comes from yet another study (this one in the UK) which shows that parents are orphaning their children while they pursue their careers.

And yet, I thought the following quote was particularly interesting:

"Recent research showed that most mothers with young families would prefer to stay at home and look after their children."

So why don't these mums go home? Unquestionably, the middle-class life is expensive (probably even moreso in the UK than in the US), and the cost of living is continually on the rise. But the question that no one wants to ask is this: is the standard of living we demand for ourselves of greater importantance than spending more time raising our own children? Do we really need two Mercedes? Do we really need those gym memberships? The Tivo? The Satellite TV? All the latest techno-gadgets? The daily Starbucks venti, iced-blended, decaf, mocha frapuccino? Not that this will solve all of the problems. But I submit it would go a long way to reducing the number of orphaned children as our cost of living would often diminish to the point that mom could come home and pursue her dream of (and, dare I say, responsibility for) caring for the kids.

The above story reinforces what I have heard recently that American fathers, on average, spend only 4 minutes with their children each day! That is yet another problem. Does Dad always come home and plop himself in front of the TV, or does he spend this time rastling, snuggling, reading, worshiping, and praying with his kids?

Is there really any wonder that today's children have a different worldview than their parents, would rather spend time with their peers than their families, are promiscuous, get into drugs, and eventually grow up to be nasty, brutish adults?

Of course, what goes around comes around. You can just picture how the kids will respond:

"By the way, Mum. When you and Dad need care in your old age... Don't come asking me for help. I'm sure the government have a nice little hole carved out for you in some state-run nursing institution where you can waste away the remainder of your days while Sis and I are out looking after ourselves. Didn't you hear about the brilliant 103" plasma screen telie that's coming out soon? I've just gotta have one o' them! And, of course, the wife's gonna have to work to help us pay for it."