Taking Home Time from Wii to WE

Following Ribena Plus Event a couple of weeks ago, Ribena Plus looked at the pressures busy working parents are under when trying to reconnect with their children after work.

TAKING HOME TIME FROM Wii to WE
Research shows it takes 12 minutes of quality time for parents to reconnect with their child after work

· Busy working parents feel they need at least half an hour to an hour to reconnect with their children

· Parents feel pressured into spending six times longer on chores each evening than playing with their kids – spending only half an hour quality time with them per night

· New study shows you can turn off technology and reconnect with your kids in just 12 minutes –dubbed ‘We-connection Time’ by experts

· Almost half (42 per cent) of those questioned worry they are not a good enough parent during the week

· The makers of Ribena Plus teamed up with mums to create the Twelve Minute Manual – a booklet of 30 fun things to do with your kids to help reconnect with them.

(The 12 minute manual of ideas on how to reconnect with your kids can be maximised when you click on it.)

TIME-POOR parents are spending the equivalent of seven days a year (39 minutes per day) trying to emotionally reconnect with their children and get back into the family mindset when they return home from work and school, in-depth research from the makers of Ribena Plus reveals.

But the vital new study backed by child development experts shows parents are putting unnecessary pressure on themselves as it can take just 12 minutes to fully reconnect with their children when they come home from school, giving parents enough time to find out about their day, turn off technology and share an activity together.

These findings will be welcomed by parents, as one in four (25 per cent) modern Mums and Dads who work currently feel they cannot fit the time they want to reconnect with their child into their evenings, with one in 33 parents (three per cent) saying they do not feel like they spend any quality time with their kids at all during the week.

Over a third of parents (37 per cent) admit they struggle to switch off from work mode at home and almost half (45 per cent) of time-pressed parents worry about chores while they are reconnecting with their kids.

This crucial time when families switch from work and school modes to becoming parents / children again has been dubbed the ‘We-connection Time’ by child experts.

Parenting expert and Child Psychologist Dr Claire Halsey, working with the makers of Ribena Plus, says parents can actually make the switch from work to a family mindset and reconnect with their kids in just 12 minutes every evening by asking open-ended questions and sharing an activity with their child.  This time then sets parents up for a family focused evening full of quality time.