I would like to address the writer, Mayra, directly in saying that she is expressing opinions that are both ignorant and myopic.  Look [those words] up in the dictionary.

How dare she accuse today’s hardworking parents of being “lazy” and wondering if parents “ever [had any] interest in their kids.”

Since Mayra felt it necessary to share some facts about how many quality-time hours per week that parents “share with their kids,” I think she should hear of some other facts.

In her research she did not find that, according to the Share Our Strength website, more than 17 million children in America are at risk of hunger, 15.5 million kids in America live in poverty, 20.1 million children benefit from their family receiving food stamps, yet only 9.4 million kids get a free or reduced-price school breakfast on an average school day.

According to the 2009 Census information, 15.6 percent of people are below the poverty level and the average household of three has an average income of only $55,000.

The average commute time is 29.4 minutes, not including time necessary to get children to their school.

If the average elementary school student must get to school no later than 8 a.m., and the average daytime job begins at 8 a.m. to 9 a.m., this presents significant scheduling difficulties for a family to schedule its mornings.

Add to that the average start time of junior high schools, middle schools and high schools at 7:30 a.m., and a family’s morning schedule becomes even more complicated.

Try to imagine how long it takes to wake up children who don’t want to get up, take showers, and get teeth brushed for all family members.

Most average family homes have a single bathroom. Trying to get through the bathroom routines for 3 individuals can take a minimum of 45 minutes.

If parents must drop off their children at 7:30 a.m. to get to work on time, that family of three would have to start bathroom routines at 6:45 a.m.

That would allow an extremely tight timeline to get ready to go and leave the house. To allow for breakfast to be made, served, eaten and cleaned up afterward would require that family to wake at 5:45 in the morning.

Due to the rising cost of living and the crunch on existing employees to take on 1.5 to 2 jobs as companies pare down employees, parents cannot afford to miss time from work because they are late from dropping kids off or leave early to pick up kids at 2:30 p.m. every day.

These programs, “Share Our Strength” and the after-school activities programs allow the average working family to simply survive and keep its children in school.

These same families are the ones who often cannot afford to send their children to universities.

Thus, Mayra, you are insulting the families of a majority of your own readership.

I have many friends and relatives who are the “average” family with median income and struggle to get through their weekly schedules.

They do their very best to provide for their families and get in as much quality time as possible.

The sad reality is that there is little time possible to have quality time for parents and children or parents together as a couple.

I wholeheartedly encourage you to find and marry your own Donald Trump in future so that you can stay at home and spend mass quantities of time with your children.

Renee Bloch

P.S. “Quality time” is called that because it is defined by the quality of the time spent with another, not the quantity.