Kids Want Their Parents to be Less Stressed Out

Children Focus on Quality vs. Quantity of Time

Busy parents spend much of their time feeling guilty over the lack of quality time they spend with their kids, with work, household duties, multiple children, and day-to-day chores filling their day. But is the feeling reciprocated by the kids?

Surprisingly, the answer, according to a recent article published in The American Psychoanalyst journal is "not so much." According to study author Ellen Galinsky, president of the Families and Work Institute, only 10 percent of children in third grade through their senior year wished for more time with their mom and 15.5 percent with their dad. So what do children actually want then?

Thirty-four percent of children wish their mothers and 27.5 percent wish their fathers would be less tired and stressed out. Simply put, they want their folks to "chill out!" Another insight from the study is that it doesn't seem to matter to kids whether or not parents work or stay at home full-time or a part-time basis. Instead, children pick up on parents being too pooped to participate in things and not maintaining that work-life balance that is so important to a well-adjusted family.