Wednesday, October 29, 2008

HOW MUCH TIME DO WE ACTUALLY SPEND CONVERSING WITH OUR CHILDREN?

Quote: "Public school children receive almost 11,000 hours of time in a secular school from kindergarten through their senior year compared with only 264 hours spent in meaningful conversation with their parents within the same 12-year period."

Oh my goodness. I thought that was bunk but then I began thinking. When Kazz and Brisan went to school, I was the mom who yelled at them to wake up in the morning, hurried them out the door to leave then when they got home I was the mom who bugged them to do their homework and scolded them when they resisted. I was hardly ever "talking with" them. I talked "at" them quiet a lot though.

I've come to the conclusion that this quote is correct!

Let's do the math.

Let assume that we as parents sit and talk with our children for 1 hour a day. I know that we don't do this daily but for the sake of arguement, let's throw up that number for consideration.

I know, I know! If we get 3 minutes of time here and there every day we are happy. If we get to sit and watch television with them we are happy. Oh my, and if we have dinner with them we are ecstatic! But, for the sake of argument let's say we actually do speak WITH our children for 1 hour EVERY single day.

1 hour X 365 days per year X 13 years =

4745 hours from Kindergarten thru Senior year

VS

the school giving them their version of life for 11,000 hours.

I bet if we were to tick off the amount of time we actually do have meaningful conversation with our children the total amount of hours would be so much less. This actually makes me so very happy to have them at home for their schooling. We do spend so much more time talking and getting to know each other. Food for thought.

2 comments:

Uneekdolldesigns said...

As a homeschooling mom of 3 (used to be four) I do agree! Mine are teens now, and conversing is very important sicne they seem to be more and more going their own way....

Naimah said...

Reading your post has made me think about whether I do actually take the time to listen to my kids, most of the time I feel like I rush them when they want to tell me about something, I want my kids to alway feel comfortable to come and speak with me, especially as they grow older.

 
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