Average Family Spends Just 6 Hours Together Each Week

A recent survey out of the U.K. of families with kids at home said that the average family is spending just 6 hours a week together. The research was commissioned by McCain, to mark the launch of its “Teatime to Talk cards” a collection of conversation starters.

That’s means the average family isn’t even eating together all that often. The study said they only eat a meal as a household four days out of seven. The most popular topics around the table when they do dine together are school (50%), TV shows (48%) and friendships (46%).

According to the study of 2,000 British parents with children at home, most agree that work shifts are hindering family quality time. Other factors include homework, household chores, TV time, social media use, and after school activities. 37% admit they don’t set aside specific time to spend with one another and 49% think there are distractions at home such as TVs and games consoles, which impact quality time.

Aside from mealtimes, parents are most likely to chat to their children when in the car (57 per cent), putting them to bed (40 per cent), and walking to and from school (38 per cent).

Some Of The Top Things That Have Hindered Family Time In The U.K.

• 56% Work hours
• 31% The cost-of-living crisis
• 29% Their homework/coursework deadlines
• 27% Household chores
• 21% TV use
• 20% Social media use
• 19% After school clubs e.g. sports clubs

The research also revealed what parents define as family time, with eating together coming top (74%), followed by watching TV as a group (66%) and cooking (46%).

Sunday was found to be the day households most often have a group meal (44%), followed by Saturday (39%) and Friday (25%), suggesting weekdays are busiest.

All chipping in with the cooking (36%), a birthday in the home (35%) and kids helping with meal planning (29%) have also helped encourage families to eat together. However, three in 10 admitted mealtimes are the only time their household get to spend quality time with one another.

Source: https://tinyurl.com/443e9m7u

Image – Ann Danilina / Unsplash