London - Parents now say they are too busy to properly teach their children important skills such as telling the time, tying their shoelaces and riding a bike.
In a survey by UK parenting website yano.co.uk, three in five parents complain they are too tired to show their children how to brush their teeth, read and safely cross the road.
The study found that 55 percent of them blame their tiredness on long working hours. As a result, many of today’s young children are missing out on extra help with basic learning.
About six in 10 say doing the washing and cleaning takes priority over things such as teaching their youngsters to dress themselves and learn days of the week and months of the year.
The skills parents most want to have time to teach their children are:
l Reading – 73 percent
l Writing – 66 percent
l Learning to cross the road – 45 percent
l Learning to tell the time – 17 percent
l Riding a bike – 13 percent
l Tying shoelaces – eight percent
l Learning to catch – four percent
Nearly half (47 percent) say the work being done by teachers at school is, in itself, insufficient.
And two-thirds of parents (66 percent) would love to spend more quality time with their kids.
But, more than a quarter of parents say they spend less than 20 minutes a night reading with their child. Almost half admit this is insufficient and feel guilty about it. – Daily Mail