How to Solve Nation's Problems: Help Parents Read More to Their Kids

Conservative writer tackles the opportunity gap

The number of times you read Goodnight Moon to your kids could be key to their future success.

That's just a slight exaggeration of the take-home from a study of inequality among children, which conservative David Brooks highlights in a recent column. Low-income and high-income children are now parented in vastly different ways, and its correlated with very different outcomes later in life.

A few decades ago, working-class parents spent more time with their children than college-educated parents, but those figures have now reversed, and college-educated parents now spend an hour more with their kids per day.

Based on the study, Brooks argues a few things need to change so that over-stressed working-class parents can spend more time with their kids. First, he says, liberals should "champion norms that say marriage should come before childrearing." Second, he suggests spending less on Medicare and more on earned-income tax credits and other programs to benefit the working class.

Via David Brooks, The New York Times.

Should we be concerned about helping working-class parents spend more time with their kids?

[ir0nw0lfe]

It sure couldn't hurt to have parents take a greater interest in the lives they brought into the world. Parents should spend as much time as possible with their children, if they are not being taught values by the parents someone else will step in to fill the gap with values the parents don't want. I don't know if reading more to a child gets them into college earlier or makes them the next Nobel prize winner but parents spending more time with their children sure couldn't hurt. It's way past time for adults to take personal responsibility for their lives, their marriages, and their children. Would setting an example at home make the difference between the next generation learning to give instead of waiting to be catered to? Let's try it and find out. That's a gamble I'm willing to bet on.

[hwyangel]

Amen!

[autiger]

I'd think our 1st concern would be to make sure the parents have jobs .. Then inexpensive gas, food, health care, safe neighborhood, safety from Terriorism .. ect

[DrMoonshine]

All of that in attainable through a parents hard work. Except for terrorism, which is highly unlikely unless our government wants another new world order ontop of the one that we are transitioning into.

[Souljah]

@DR yes its attainable through hard work but what they're saying is that , if you haveto bust your but for 8-12 hrs a day , its hard to still find time to maintain your home and cook and get the kids bathed and all that not including reading for an hour or so to your child..Time management can help. but some jobs pay so little that parents need a second or third job..at that point you dont really have time to manage.

[Nemesis3X]

Bah, just a bunch of touchy-feely nonsense. Being your children's "playmate" is rubbish!! You're the parent act like it. Instruction, discipline, respect!! Above all, consistency!!! Say what you mean, mean what you say. Know where and what they're doing. Yes doing things with them is great, but constant attention turns them into little needy whiners.

[autiger]

They are called "helicopter parents". I'm not sure I don't agree w/ some of what you said .. Kinda of funny the way you put it.. Heck, you might be just sarcastic.lol

[Nemesis3X]

Nope, no sarcasm. I've seen the results many, many times of over-attentive parents that constantly entertain their children. They're whiny little brats. They'll probably grow up to be self-entitled liberals!!(a tad bit of sarcasm)

[Bobolinsky]

A parent who is their child's "friend" is cheating the child.

[ir0nw0lfe]

I don't thinly spending time with your child means you have to spare the rod. I do think it means they know you have a constant stake in their upbringing and guidance. All children need to know that the discipline they receive comes from the life they are given. It affirms those bonds that will he tested in later years. Again I'm not much of a Dr. Spock parent.

[Wilberhum]

Reading more would help but any one thing will not solve the problem.
There a million sources of our problems.

[Thunderchicken]

Don't have kids till you are able to parent them. My wife and I delayed having kids till we could afford for her to stay home and raise them. We never regretted it. Oh and reading to the kids (and having them read to you) is great for their developement. Mostly because of their upbringing, I'm rightfully proud of the way my kids are turning out. (One is in engineering school and the other wants to be a surgeon.)

[Bobolinsky]

You should be proud :)

[hwyangel]

I agree, you should be proud. A true example of thinking before you act.

[FollowTheMoney]

How about paying working class their just share of the profits. I take care of raising my family myself, Thank you.

[FRitzKlenner5]

I'm sorry. I only clicked on this article because I thought that the chick was breast-feeding and I wanted to see the larger image. Now I'm way too disappointed to give my opinion on anything.

[TheLoneRanger]

Scientific research occasionally grasps the idea to ask good parents how all parents should raise their children.

The best results for children to be functional adults are for them to be brought up in a home with a married father and mother and where the mother stays at home. Yes it is good for parents to read to their children. It is not important that the children understand what is being read when they are young. The important factor is that the parents are interacting with their children on a regular basis.

Children have an innate yearning for their parent’s attention throughout their formative years. When children are young, being cuddled and simply hearing their parent’s voice is so reassuring that their pituitary gland produces endorphins which cause such feelings of well-being. Of course a parent’s attention for a child at any age creates these feelings of well-being. But the fact remains that the earlier this reaction develops on a regular basis the more functional the child will be as an adult and the less likely the child or resulting adult will engage in undesirable behavior.

To put a child in pre-school before the age of five or in school at any age will inevitably cut off much of the needed positive reinforcement children need and where parents are exclusively best equipped to give.

Children who are largely cut off from this relationship will almost always inevitably end up seeking out other relationships to try to mimic the parent/child connection. This can be done in several ways. One is with children of about the same age.(If this scenario, which is the most common, is engaged in regularly and for prolonged periods of time, it can and often does lead to delayed maturity.) Another can be with a teacher or other adult.(This scenario can and does leave children more vulnerable to sexual predators as they are wanting and can be desperate for adult attention.) As children get older it can lead to drug use (some of which artificially creates the feeling of well-being) and illicit sexual experimentation as a poor physical substitute for what parents should still be providing.

The best scenario is for children to stay at home during all of their formative years and be taught a regular and appropriate curriculum usually by their mother. Children who are homeschooled are better behaved and out perform academically children the same age in public schools at a fraction of the cost.

RESEARCH FACTS ON HOMESCHOOLING http://www.nheri.org/research/research-facts-...

[Stratton]

In Finland, whenever a mother leaves the hospital with a newborn baby, the government provides her with two books. One is a parenting book, the other is a baby book. The idea is to get parents to begin their children's education as early as possible. It's not a coincidence that Finland has one of the most successful public education systems in the world.

[hwyangel]

They should teach parenting classes in school, especially with so many encouraging free self expression and teen dating. There really are alot of professions that require some knowledge of child care.