Getting There on Being There

Could it really be that today’s parents are reading more to their children and placing more restrictions on their television viewing? Yes indeed. In fact, it appears parents are more kid-involved overall than they were 10 years ago. So says Jane Dye, a family demographer with the U.S. Census Bureau. In an interview with the Christian Science Monitor, the researcher made a connection between those encouraging trends and newly compiled Census data showing that, compared with a decade ago, 9% more children are taking extracurricular classes and 5% fewer 12- to 17-year-olds are repeating grades. The Monitor also reported that some of the behaviors included in the new Census report were tracked for the first time in 2004: 78% of children under 6 ate dinner every night with their parents, and 53% ate breakfast with their parents every day. Previous studies have firmly established a strong connection between family meals and good kids.