Is your spouse missing out on valuable family time and a real bonding experience with your children? In an article published earlier this year it was reported that only 1 in 30 men in the UK found time to read a bedtime story to their children. I suspect the situation wouldn’t look that different in the USA or Australia either.
Reasons for the lack of bedtime reading were cited as long hours and work commitments and tiredness.
When women were interviewed the results were 9 out of 10 still found time to read to their children. I admit this is a subject I feel very strongly about. Mick and I read to our children from the time they were babies. I’m not talking about the odd book occasionally but myriads of books of all types. In fact I’m sure we were the libraries best customers.
Books are an important aspect in our house. Mick is an avid reader and so am I, so there are stacked bookshelves in several rooms. A present for each other will often be a book and it’s a standing joke in our house that we dare not let Mick near a second hand book shop, or the bookshelves at home will end up suffering further overload.
But the thing I found sad with the story is how much fathers are missing out on. When we lived in Sydney Mick didn’t get home till late because we lived a long way out in the suburbs and he worked in the city and had to rely on the vagaries of public transport, but he still managed to find time to read to the children. Each of us loved that special time of curling up together with a book. Reading to children is one of the things we are both passionate about.
Even though it is hard at times to make time for it, our son and his wife have been reading to their children since they were babies, because they see it as important.
So wives out there, do try and encourage your husbands in this vital aspect of parenting and bonding of children and parent. Maybe there is something you can do, a job you can take over to enable this to happen on a more regular basis.
It’s not just about reading either but often those times becomes great times for the best conversations and drawing closer the bond between parent and child. Make sure your spouse doesn’t miss out on this.
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