A survey of 4000 parents and children found that the modern day family is obsessed with money.
Parents are blaming money for being the biggest obstacle to positive family life with 36% saying it has a negative impact on family time. A third of all parents think quality family time costs money and an incredible 68% of parents see money as the biggest barrier to spending more time with their family. This is rubbing off on their kids with more than a quarter of 8-15 year olds stating money as the most important thing to them, putting cash in front of their health, education, sport or music and even family pets. Religion was of lowest importance.Money More Important Than Grandparents The average age of children surveyed was 11 years and when asked what they would change in the UK to make it more family friendly 28% of them would give families more money over above addressing safety, the environment or even taking better care of grandparents.
When children were asked what they thought the most important thing to their parents was, 11% said money which they perceived as important over their parents’ careers (5%), friends (3%) or even family pets (1%).
A quarter of all children surveyed said the hardest thing about spending time with the family is that they can’t afford to do fun things together and 36% of kids wanted to be taken on more holidays not content with basic quality time together with 52% of kids thinking the way time is spent together is more important that the amount of time spent together. Almost half of parents also outline holidays as one of the best three examples of quality time before reading together, helping them learn and engaging in sport or physical activity – all free and considered by experts as the best everyday ways to spend time.Average Family Spends 49 Minutes A Day TogetherThe average family spends just 49 minutes a day together and thinks that is enough, using money as one of their biggest excuses for not doing more together.
Cementing their status as ‘commercial kids’, over a quarter of respondents felt the most important role a parent played was to ‘buy them things’ as well as making them dinner coming a close second. Being their cash cow came in over and above their parents playing with them (22%), setting rules and boundaries (17%), or driving them around (13%).
About National Family WeekNational Family Week is the UK’s annual celebration of family life, taking place this year between 31 May and 6 June. The Week aims to encourage families to spend more quality time together and champions the benefits of a healthy, active and positive family life. No two families are alike and National Family Week celebrates diversity, supporting a range of initiatives for families of every shape and size.
Highlights of National Family Week 2010:
The Summer Half Term holiday will kick off again with the record-setting Family Week Picnic and also see the return of activities including Family Week Film Day, Family Week Story Time and Family Week Sports Day, with fun family features like a Guinness World Record Attempt for the largest three-legged race and a UK exclusive preview of the much anticipated Shrek Forever After in 3D one month ahead of its general release. These and thousands of free local events and activities are locked in for 2010’s Week of family fun. National Family Week 2010 is summer’s ‘must-do’ family event.
Backed by all major political parties, National Family Week is the largest coalition on family issues in the UK, with over 180 national and thousands of local organisations on board including charities, councils, sports associations and community groups, the NSPCC, the National Federation of Women's Institutes and the National Literacy Trust.
May 2010
National Family Week is funded through commercial sponsorship including family brands Pizza Hut, Vue, and Tesco Mobile. The research is based on a survey of 3000 parents sourced by Onepoll and 1000 children sourced by Youngpoll, between 7 April and 12 April 2010.
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