How much time for our kids?

A recent article - or at least just the headline, disses Australian dads for only spending a little over an hour a day with their kids. I didn't really notice the headline at first and was wondering if the article was stating this was good or bad, because it didn't sound so bad. For myself working and going to graduate school I'm probably just as busy as any dad (maybe more) and there might be some weeks where eight hours is my average. Fortunately it is usually more than that.

Just the same many men often face the dilemma of dealing with their responsibilities and attempting to balance that to spend time with the kids (let alone your spouse). Ultimately one always seem to rob from the other. Granted there are a number of men who chose to work long hours to avoid homelife. Sometimes the office is just easier to deal with then the family (just ask Hochschild). Maybe we need to get paid more so we can afford to stay home.

And what about divorced dads? I would think they would be happy to average that amount of hours. I can tell you my dad thought nothing would change in the divorce, and all I can say is it did. There was so much he missed in not being there in the day to day experience. Consequently I really try to help people understand the full ramifications of getting divorced on their life, rather than thinking life will continue to go on its merry way.