One of the greatest concerns of today's parents, I think the greatest, is the little time they spend with their children.
The work schedule prevents them from sharing enough hours with their children. In many families the parents hardly agree with them a couple of hours a day, in others, not even that. They leave when they get up and arrive when they are already asleep. Is that what we want? Surely not, but the vast majority have no choice.
We have commented several times on the blog that efficient policies really aimed at family reconciliation and focused on the needs of the child do not lie in increasing childcare places, but among other things in making the working hours of workers with children more flexible. The focus seems to be lost that first one is father and mother and then worker.
Although it seems that no one stops at it, there are those who work to improve it. Pilar Laguna, Vice Chancellor of the Rey Juan Carlos University coordinates a decalogue of measures, prepared jointly with the Office of the Ombudsman for Children of the Community of Madrid and the National Commission for the Rationalization of Spanish Timetables, which warns of the dangers that parents' work schedules pose for children.
He has been interviewed and although what he says may seem fatalistic, it is not. He comments that the loneliness of children leads to problems such as obesity, depression, alcohol and drugs; That parents do not take real awareness of the seriousness of the situation, that it is an aberration not to share with your child a minute during the whole day and that many parents believe that having them well fed is enough.
They propose, for example, to match the schedules of parents and children, more assistance to families, that motherhood is not a problem, equality between fathers and mothers, and they suggest that one of the two parents is always at home at times not covered by school hours.
The full decalogue can be consulted in pdf format with all the measures proposed to change, both the administration and the companies. Hopefully someone starts listening because I consider it a truly important problem, much more than the crisis, although not as media.
