Parents Can’t Get Time Back

Many adults regret not having spent more of their time with their young children.

If you are the parent of a young child or children trying to balance your career with your parental responsibilities, you are not alone. According to the 2018 Employment Characteristics of Families studies published by the US Department of Labor, at least one parent was employed in 90.8 percent of families with children. Among married-couple families with children, 97.4 percent had at least one employed parents, and 63.0 percent had both parents employed.

That’s a lot of parents working who would otherwise be spending time with their young children. And newsflash: they’ll never get that time back.

That’s a scary thought.

A survey of 2,000 parents conducted by Huggies Little Simmers in 2012 found that 63% wish they had done more activities with their child. Seven out of ten felt they had taken their youngster’s childhood for granted. More than two thirds said it was easy to forget they would not be young forever. More than half said they regretted not having more quality time with their children when they were younger.

That’s a lot of parents with a lot of regrets.