Children don't need as much attention as people make you believe, amirite?

Definitely don't listen to this guy. If you have children, read to them every night, for as long as they'll let you.

by Torrance61 7 hours ago

Not only is it important for development, but why wouldn't you want to read to your children every night? It's such a sweet time and kids are only young for so long :(

by OkFix 7 hours ago

Quite usefull for their development

by Anonymous 7 hours ago

I don't think OP understands that spending time with kids in this way IS a way of showing love. My daughter is nearly 10 now and she still likes to have me sing her lullabies and read a story when she goes to bed. I'll keep doing it as long as she wants me to. It's good bonding time.

by Anonymous 6 hours ago

My mom and I read out loud together until I was in middle school. It's one of the few things that makes me sad that I don't/won't have kids, tbh.

by RoyalFollowing7272 6 hours ago

Bed time story was one of the joys of having a young kid. He went through a period of about a year where he always wanted the same one, I can still recite that thing today over 15 years later.

by madalinehilpert 6 hours ago

Imma guess their mom who likely spent time with them has more to do with their success than your indifference.

by Anonymous 6 hours ago

"The divorce came out of nowhere!"

by MoveTraditional9006 5 hours ago

I mean, the research is pretty clear about the benefits of reading to your kids.

by Anonymous 5 hours ago

I mean, you're definitely giving them a better childhood than your parents gave you but I think you should get some therapy.

by braulio15 5 hours ago

I feel like he lacks object permanence. When he's not around, the kids don't have needs.

by MoveTraditional9006 5 hours ago

Hmm I don't know if I agree with this take. Your wife is probably the one giving them all the attention. I have terminal cancer and I do all of the fun activities with my daughter because I want her to experience that stuff and I want to watch her experiencing it. My parents didn't do anything fun with me as a kid, they didn't read to me, they didn't spend time with me and I don't and wont do the same to my daughter. My husband works super long hours and still comes home and takes our daughter to the playground or swimming. He puts her to bed every night. Our kids are the future. We must be good parents and raise them to be good adults.

by Anonymous 4 hours ago

I disagree, my parents loved me but the one thing I sort of resent them for is not really giving me any attention or care about the things I'm interested in. They let me do my own thing but never really took any interest in the things I cared about or even talked to me about the things I liked. As long as my grades were good and I wasn't in jail they kind of just let me do my thing. I'm kind of jealous of people who's parents showed up and cared about the sports they were in or who enjoyed watching the same things or playing games with their parents. I learned in therapy that that was one thing I was missing in my childhood. To be fair my dad was sick and was from the silent generation and my mom was an immigrant so their style of parenting was more old school.

by Anonymous 4 hours ago

I think a lot of the Millennial helicopter parenting ethos that you have to always be with your kids and paying attention to them came as a reaction to earlier generations. I'm generation X and we got basically no attention, were more or less left to our devices a huge amount of the time. Older generations often had to put with the "kids are seen and not heard" idea - where your kids are essentially ornamental to your lifestyle but not worth engaging with in any meaningful way. I have to admit that I kind of liked being ignored by my parents since it gave me the freedom to do what I wanted. But I know that a lot of parents used it as an excuse for neglect of their kids, and so people reacted against that.

by Anonymous 4 hours ago

Christ, there's a huge difference between reading to children and taking an interest in their time and interests, and being selected parent. How sad.

by Anonymous 3 hours ago

I would always go to any event my child was participating in. Not only for them but for me. However, I don't think that people need to monitor their children as intensely as they do now.

by Anonymous 3 hours ago

I partially agree. I think too many parents smother their children—spend every waking minute entertaining them and doing stuff for them so they never learn to entertain themselves and never have time to relax or be creative on their own terms. Too much structure, too many organized activities—gah! That said, reading to kids, spending time talking and playing with them, really it's important. Not every waking minute, but enough that they know you value them and enjoy their company.

by morissettejeram 3 hours ago

Kids don't need attention from their parents 24/7 but sometimes it feels like the alternative is letting them stay in their room all day on the internet and that ain't it either. Let kids play outside, communities need to do more to have safe places for kids to play with their friends so they can still have engaging, unstructured interactions with their peers while their parents get a break.

by Anonymous 3 hours ago