An Influence of the Tendency to Delay in Arriving Home upon Children's Daily Life at Home

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to clarify how children's daily life is affected by parent's late returnhome. A questionnaire survey was made on children going to six nursery schools in the central area of Osaka City that offer an overtime day care program. The parent's tendency of delay in arriving home significantly influences their children's home life. 1) This tendency delays both dinnertime and bedtime. 2) This also shortens home life. In other words, the time of communication between parents and children as well as the frequency of their physical contact are bound to decrease. 3) Children would eat snacks before their late dinnertime, the fact of which would deprive them of enough appetite at dinnertime. 4) The late bedtime would lead to lack of sleep, or to difficulty to get up in the morning and to eat breakfast. (Received September 21, 2004; Accepted in revised form September 30, 2005)