Fewer bedtimes stories for kids with working parents?
Are working parents too busy for bedtimes stories?
A study released by Reading Across the Nation shows that reading nightly to children from birth-to-5 only happens in 47.8 percent of America’s homes, and, some people wonder if working parents play a part in these numbers by being gone, or, by being too tired to read to kids at night.
I hate it that working parents are brought up here.
For us, sure there’s times when we get to bed too late for a full bedtime story, but, I don’t feel like it’s related to working, it’s just due to life. Even on these nights, though, sometimes we make up short stories together.
People are busy these days, no matter what their employment status is, and, I believe parents make time for what they think is important.
My gut reaction is that working parents are less likely to miss bedtime stories because dinner-bath-story-sleep is also cuddle time, shared confidence time, news time. Those things are too sacred to miss, but we also don’t have time to get sick of parenting, tired of having no adult interaction and frustrated with dealing with all the poop stay at home parents have to face 24 hours a day.
The hectic lifestyle makes less time available to working parents. There was a time when many of us grew up with wonderful bedtime stories told by our parents.
yes, parents are tired at the end of the day. Perhaps it would be easier if the bedtime ritual started at an earlier hour. That way, time could be made for a story. Also our website http://www.thestoryhome.com helps parents that are too tired to tell the story themselves. They can relax with their child and listen to a wonderful bedtime tale told by a soothing voice.