More than 80% mothers feed their babies while watching television so that they eat fast without creating a fuss, a recent study has revealed.
The reason behind this alarming trend is that more and more families have both parents working, and hence, have less time to devote to the children.
The study shows that fathers spend around eight minutes a day talking to their children, while working mothers spend around 11 minutes. Even stay-at-home mothers do not talk to their children for more than 30 minutes a day.
Conducted over a period of three months by the Early Childhood Association (ECA) to look at nutritional habits in children, the study has revealed alarming truths about parent-child relations. Over 2,000 parents were questioned about their food habits and quality time spent with their children.
Swati Popat Vats, president of ECA and Podar pre-schools, says, “Parents only give orders to their children; they rarely have a conversation with them. Even stay-at-home mothers are rarely home with the children. And when they are, they are so bored that they keep them engaged in videogames. Also, the trend of feeding children while watching TV is dangerous as children need to have positive thoughts while eating. TV distracts them, so they are not even able to understand their own hunger or chewing techniques; this can lead to gastrointestinal problems.”
ECA joint secretary, Dr Kamini Rege, assistant professor, department of human development, College of Home Science, Nirmala Niketan, says, “As parents are always busy working, children often end up talking more with their peers or even their housemaids. Working mothers, out of guilt, at least try to spend some time with their children. But fathers, many a times, are not even aware of what their child is studying.”
Even stay-at-home mothers are unable to communicate much with their children. Rege adds that most of the time mothers do not even know how to talk to their children. “Mothers generally end up talking to them only about homework and other school-related activities. They are unable to hold deep conversations with them to understand their stress or what is really going on in their lives,” she says.
