Quality Time vs Quantity of Time With Your Kids | Dad University

0:00 A common problem that you might face when you have a child is that your time feels limited. You often feel like you're not spending enough time with your child, and I know during the newborn phase that this is definitely a common feeling. And as they get older, they participate in activities, start spending more time with their friends, and the time that you spend with them seems to be getting shorter and shorter. In today's video, we're discussing the quality of the time versus the quantity of the time.

0:31 If you have to choose one, which one is better? Hey guys, I'm Jason Kreidman and this is dad University. We release a new episode every Thursday, so be sure to like the video. Subscribe subscribe to our channel and click on that notification bell so you don't miss any of our videos.

1:02 We want to figure out if the quality of the time that you are spending with your child is more important than the quantity of the time. Let's look at some other examples and see how quality versus quantity affects it. How about a marriage or relationship? Could a marriage be built and thrive by only seeing each other every once in a while? Could it survive if you lived in the same space but rarely spent any quality time together?

1:31 We hear about marriages or relationships falling apart because either one person is too busy or both of them just don't have enough time to spend together. We hear this in Hollywood a lot. Or on the other side, they didn't spend enough quality time together. Maybe going on dates or communication or intimacy. Those are all important things of spending quality time together. Well, it seems like both quality and quantity are needed in a marriage. Let's take another another example.

2:01 Learning a foreign language. If you were learning to speak another language and you only spent a little bit of time practicing it, would you learn it? Probably not. You have to have good quality practice over a long period of time if you want to learn a new language. So again, like marriage, it takes both quality and quantity of time. So what about the time spent with your child? Quality or quantity? Here's where it gets interesting. A study in 2015 in the journal of Marriage and Family found that the amount of time parents spend with their kids between the ages of 3 and 11 had virtually no relationship to how the child turned out.

2:44 This included the children's academic achievement, behavior and emotional well being. Well, there you go. We don't have to feel guilty about not spending enough time with our kids, right? Right. Well, sort of. There's a saying, if you feel guilty, you probably are. I would argue that your child does benefit from spending time with you. Even if it's not quality time. They get a chance to observe and learn things, and in some instances, even just your presence can help them feel more secure.

3:23 But if you were on your phone or busy talking to somebody else, or just distracted in some way, your child is not going to feel connected. And that certainly doesn't qualify as quality time. If you have to pick one, it would seem that quality time is more important. What this means is if you don't get a lot of time to spend with your child, make the time that you do count. When you come home from work, give them long hugs and kisses.

3:54 If you can, tuck them into bed at night, just spend a couple extra minutes snuggling with them. Well, that's all we have for today. If you enjoyed this episode, please give it a thumbs up. Follow our page and share this video with your friends and family. We want to hear from you. Do you think that quality or quantity is more important with your child? Leave your feedback in the comment section below. We thank you for watching and we'll see you next week.