With our busy lifestyles only getting busier, quality time with family often goes on the backburner.
It's not always possible to find the hours in the day, but a worrying trend has seen this invaluable time replaced with something non-essential - electronic devices.
A new study found that the average amount of quality time a modern family spends together on a weekday is just 38 minutes, and this is helped in no small way by both ours and our kids' addiction to these devices.
Almost a third of parents, polled by Hollywood Bowl, even blame their family’s reliance on technology as a reason for the lack of quality time they get to spend together, and more than three in ten say their kids would rather play computer games than have a family conversation or take part in a family activity.
Liz Penney, spokesperson for Hollywood Bowl, who commissioned the research, said: “Getting time together as a family is difficult, it’s a shame to see just how little quality time parents and their children are spending together, without the distractions of day-to-day life interfering.
“A worrying trend to emerge is the influence our heavy reliance on electronic devices is having on the lack of quality time we spend with our loved ones, as even when we are all at home together, chances are, much of that time will be spent with children and parents staring at a screen.
“It’s important to ensure that we spend time interacting with loved ones and have some time away from the technology that dominates modern life.”
“Whether that means getting out of the house and enjoying an activity together, or really interacting with one another at home, children grow up fast, so it is important that we make more time to engage in fun activity together and not just interact with screens."
