Perhaps all parents, at some point, look back wistfully at earlier generations and assume that childrearing was easier for them than it is now. Any supposed {{U}}(1) {{/U}} seems elusive today, when "balancing" and "juggling" are the operative words describing many parents' lives and when {{U}}(2) {{/U}} and attention is often intense.
But now there's a modest bit of encouraging news: American parents are more involved in their children's lives than {{U}}(3) {{/U}}, the U.S. Census Bureau reports. They are reading to their children more often, eating more meals together, and {{U}}(4) {{/U}}.
At the same time, census takers are not the only ones {{U}}(5) {{/U}}. New studies and surveys abound on both sides of the Atlantic, trying to {{U}}(6) {{/U}} of 21st-century families. Individually, each represents a tiny piece of {{U}}(7) {{/U}}. Collectively, they offer varied perspectives that attest to the {{U}}(8) {{/U}}.
As if to challenge the trend toward family togetherness reported by the Census Bureau, a study from the government-backed Booktime {{U}}(9) {{/U}} finds that children spend very little spare time with adults. Working parents have little time {{U}}(10) {{/U}}, the group reports, and they {{U}}(11) {{/U}} to read with children. Even so, the more money a father makes, the more likely he is to read with his children. For mothers, {{U}}(12) {{/U}}. The higher a woman's earnings, the less likely she is to read with her children.
Perhaps these findings represent cultural differences {{U}}(13) {{/U}}, or maybe it's just a case of British parents being {{U}}(14) {{/U}} their limited time. American parents are also monitoring their children more closely than in the past, the census reports.
For some families, {{U}}(15) {{/U}} and in unusual ways. A year-old website, HowsMyNanny.com, provides a mini-license plate that parents can {{U}}(16) {{/U}}. Passersby who observe a nanny's conduct, good or bad, can {{U}}(17) {{/U}} to the parent's personal account. In other families, {{U}}(18) {{/U}} involves everything from nanny cams in the home to GPS monitoring, {{U}}(19) {{/U}}. What parents and grandparents in previous generations could have imagined such high-tech ways of {{U}}(20) {{/U}}?