Our lives were supposed to be more flexible and family-friendly thanks to the technology at our fingertips. But in this age of BlackBerrys, recession pressures, working at home after hours and on weekends, family time may not be working out the way we thought.
Busy parents who expected more time with the kids are Finding that more work hours at home don't necessarily translate into quality time with them.
A new generation of parents needs to discover the meaning of "quality time," researchers say. “Personally, just given the life I lead, I think there is something to this idea of quality time- spending productive time with children vs. just being around,” says Peter Brandon, a professor at Carleton College. He says engaging or interacting with a child in activities such as reading or playing counts as quality time rather than "passive monitoring," such as washing the dishes while the child is watching TV.
“This time with children pays off,” Brandon says. He notes that good parent-child relationships result in children being happier and more successful, including at school.
As parents struggle to be more available to their kids, new research on work and family schedules to be presented Friday at the meeting in Dallas includes a study that shows parents' availability is on the decline because more parents are in the workforce. Although parents today may be spending more time on child care, they are less available overall.
Working parents who spend less time with their children should try to make sure the time they do spend is communicating with them, vs. doing the dishes or spending more time on themselves, Brandon says “The trade-off is not necessarily taking away time from your kid,” he says "You're taking away time from other things”
小题1:The first paragraph mainly intends to tell us that .
A．technology lets parents work at home
B．parents are satisfied with their work
C．technology makes our lives much easier
D．the family time is not always satisfying小题2:We can learn from the third paragraph that .
A．some families are not experiencing quality time
B．it's enough for parents to stay with their children
C．parents enjoy engaging in work-at-home activities
D．working hours at home can transform into quality time小题3: According to Brandon, the quality time means
A．just, being around with children
B．work time is separate from family time
C．spending instructive time with children
D．letting the children do whatever they want to do小题4:The underlined sentence “This time with children pays” off means .
A．the time with children is of little value
B．the time with children costs quite a lot
C．the time with children leads to good result
D．the time with children has a bad effect on them小题5:What will the author most probably talk about in next part of the passage?
A．How to spend more time at home
B．How to do the dishes in a proper way.
C．How to spend more time on working at home.
D．How to take away time in a much proper way.
