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Ask Amy: Elder wonders why parents socialize with kids in tow

By Amy Dickinson, Tribune Content Agency on

Dear Amy: When I was growing up, I never saw my parents or their friends socialize along with their children.

My parents always had friends their own age, and so did the children.

In the last 30 to 40 years, I have watched my siblings, nieces and nephews, and even my friends socializing with their children.

They have even brought their young children to parties where there would be a lot of bad behavior going on.

I don't understand this phenomenon. Is it because it makes these parents feel younger, or was there some kind of loneliness in their youth?

What could they possibly talk about with these kids, having such an age difference?

 

Beyond Curious

Dear Curious: It is safe to say that parents did a lot of things when you were growing up that they don’t do now (my father used to send me to the store on my bike to buy his cigarettes).

When you were growing up, the majority of households had one parent who was more or less a full-time parent. This parent spent a lot of time with the children, and so when there was an opportunity to spend time with adults, the parents hired a babysitter.

A recent (pre-pandemic) finding from the Bureau of Labor Statistics states that in American households with married parents, 64 percent of these families have both parents who are employed.

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