INTERESTING FACT

TODAY’S MOTHERS SPEND MORE TIME
WITH THEIR KIDS THAN THEIR MOTHERS DID

The Washington Post recently ran an article about a University of Maryland study that researched the amount of time parents spend with their children. The study revealed that today’s mothers spend more hours focused on their children than their own mothers did 40 years ago.

In 1965, mothers spent 10.2 hours a week tending primarily to their children -- feeding them, reading with them or playing games, for example -- according to the study's analysis of detailed time diaries kept by thousands of Americans. That number dipped in the 1970s and 1980s, rose in the 1990s and now is higher than ever, at nearly 14.1 hours a week.

They have given up hours in other parts of their lives to make more time with their children -- cutting back markedly on housework, which was down more than 40 percent over 38 years. They also trimmed their free time -- and to some extent their sleep -- as they increasingly multi-tasked. Multi-tasking hours roughly doubled.

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