Father Time: Brit dads now spend an extra 14 days of quality time per year with their kids

British dads say that the 2020 pandemic has helped them to prioritise family time and according to a survey commissioned by Accurist watches, they now spend an extra 6 hours and 36 minutes more with their kids each week. That’s over 14 days more per year!

And while a quarter of UK dads think it’s okay to be late for a Zoom meeting and 30% of dads say they’ve turned up fashionably late for dinner with friends, the majority (94%) believe it’s unacceptable to turn up late for a school play and only 3.8% say they’ve been late for a child’s graduation.

Brit dads, on average consider “fashionably late” to be 11.9 minutes, however those from Stoke on Trent are the best timekeepers (thinking late to be 7 minutes) whilst those from Liverpool and Leicester are the tardiest (comfortable with 14 minutes).

Neuroscientist Dr. Rachel Taylor says this shift towards quality family time is a real generational shift. She says: “ Kids need 40 hugs a day and as we can see from our research, dads enjoy them too. Gone are the days when fathers hid behind newspapers and rarely hugged their kids.”

56% of UK dads say that lockdown changed the way they work with 32% now following a hybrid working week, 10% preferring to stay at home with the kids and 12% working traditional office hours but making sure they spend more time with their family in the evenings and at weekends.

Thanks to prioritising family time, half of British dads say they feel closer to their kids, 42% say it’s easier to talk to and listen to them and a third find it easier to relax. The things they like doing most with their children are –

Watching films (76%)

Talking (65%)

Playing sport (51%)

Cooking together (50%)

Camping (23%)

Making music (14%)

Dr Rachel Taylor adds: “Children need environments that feel predictable, safe, secure and fun. They need adults to create this quality time and space within those environments, this leads to higher levels of wellbeing and healthy brain development. Activities such as storytelling, time outside in nature and just playing games are perfect ingredients for ensuring children have good memories of how they spent time growing up. When boys spend time with their dads they are less aggressive and girls benefit from gaining more self-esteem and being less negative with their friends. Both children and fathers benefit from just being present and in the moment together, it is not something that should be taken for granted or lightly. It all makes a huge difference to life outcomes, health and wellbeing.”

Some habits die hard and half of British dads still trot out the phrase ‘Money doesn’t grow on trees.’ 41% of dads still say ‘Ask your mother’ and 25% admit they tell kids that eating carrots is good for their eyesight.

Janet Gough, Head of UK Brand Marketing for Accurist, says: “We’ve been obsessed with perfect timekeeping since the 1940s, and we’re delighted to see that British dads are making time for what is truly important; creating memories with their loved ones.”