The Child Welfare League Foundation on Tuesday said a recent survey showed Taiwanese fathers spend too little time with their children and do not talk with them very much.
The survey, conducted between May 11 and June 15, was released ahead of Father’s Day on Saturday.
The foundation said 54 percent of child respondents said they do not talk to their fathers for more than 30 minutes per day, with 6.4 percent exchanging less than one sentence with their fathers a day.
More than a quarter of the children (26.6 percent) have dinner with their fathers fewer than three days a week, and one-third (36 percent) of fathers have never attended their children’s school activities — mainly because they are at work, are otherwise too busy, or have no interest, the survey found.
Even though fathers do not seem to give enough time to their children, 43 percent of the children surveyed said their fathers “are willing to give me support, recognition and praise.”
More than half of the child respondents said that their fathers have taken leave to care for them when they are ill.
Asked about an ideal father, 52 percent of the child respondents said it was a father that takes them out for fun often, 51 percent said it was a father who does not smoke, while 43 percent said it was someone who listens to what they have to say.
Foundation executive director Chen Li-ju (陳麗如) said the survey showed that fathers spend very little time with their children.
She urged fathers who are often occupied with work to make an effort to improve relations with their children by promoting a “new good father” campaign — talking with their children for 30 minutes a day, having dinner with their children at least three nights a week and attending at least three school activities per year.
The survey collected 1,395 effective samples, with a margin of error of 2.56 percentage points.
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