I was peeved about this several years ago when I heard an announcement on the radio advocating the same idea:  If we parents would just get our heads out of our a**es and have dinner with our kids more, they would be so much better off.  It is wonderful that we have people making such terrific suggestions, because otherwise, we wouldn’t know that spending time with our kids is a good thing.  We are a pretty dense lot after all.  Nevermind the fact that employers these days fully expect all employees to stick around until 6-7 at night, and then possibly drive for over an hour to get home.  We’ll just tell them that we’re “...going to the effort and making it a priority...” as this article points out we should, and leave at 4 every day.  And while we’re making it a priority, we’ll sell our house and move into an underperforming school district, because that way we’ll have dinner with our kids every night.  But wait, then we have to buy the food....

It would be nice if our so-called experts and do-gooders would concentrate on why this change in society has occurred vs. comment on it like we’ve lost our minds.  I do not know one parent who wouldn’t rather be home every single night by dinner so they could have a lot of quality time with their kids.  This commentary points out that “somewhere along the way...” the American ritual of Dad coming home to dinner has faded away.  It would be nice if someone at Harvard and Columbia-where these studies emanate from-would put their brains to work on “somewhere along the way...” and help us figure out what is driving these trends.  Oh yes, and then maybe they could mention to employers that family life in America is eroding.  I’m sure they’ll care and send everyone home at 5 the next day.

You can probably tell I’m a little irritated.  I don’t believe in pressuring one group (parents) to fix a societal problem that has lots of different drivers.  Yes, parents are ultimately responsible, and yes, we can and do try not to stay at work all night.  But “somewhere along the way...” I would appreciate some real information on how to make this happen that doesn’t involve compromising our children’s neighborhood, lifestyle or education.