Kores India Ltd, a popular stationery manufacturer with a wide range of art and craft products for children, along with First Moms Club (FMC), a social community of mothers, undertook a study roping in 5000 mothers within the age group of 24-44 years to understand how they spend time with their children.
The results gave light to the truth that young mothers do spend considerable time with their children, but due to various distractions - the time cannot be counted as quality time.
The study suggested that children have the highest cognitive function from the age of 2-10 years, which means that during these years they absorb a lot of information, are most intuitive and start understanding the world around them. But as children, they would need their parents’ guidance to show them the way.
Mothers were presented with a few simple questions trying to understand how they spend time with their children and through that data we wanted to evaluate the difference between quality of time versus quantity of time spent with their children. 44 % of them said they spend more than 2 hours, while 39 % said they spend the whole day with them.
However, an astounding 46 % of mothers said they do spend a considerable amount of time talking on the mobile while they are spending time with their kids. This was the first step in understanding the distraction a parent has while spending time with their children.
Furthermore, 36 % of the mothers said they spend time chatting on WhatsApp when it is playtime with their kids. This means while they are spending time with their kids - they are not focusing on just them. Their distractions mean that they have multiple things in consideration while spending time with their child.
About 28 % of mothers said they get up to do chores every time they are spending time with their children. Another 27 % said that they occasionally get up to do chores while spending time with their children. This means that more than 50 % of the parents are having an interrupted playtime with their children.
The time a mother spends with her children in this day and age is considerable, but it does lack quality due to various distractions. Parents need to spend more quality time, even if the time is just 10 minutes - the time should be spent without any distraction. Young children with their superior cognitive function are affected by the absence of quality time.