Is Lawn Care Destroying Your Children?

I recently was directed to an article about lawn care that suggested we could serve the environment best by allowing our lawns to die.  I immediately shrieked in astonishment, I am convinced that the environment in my neighborhood is enhanced by my green grass.  Never-the-less, it was not the environment aspects of the article that really caught my attention.  Instead, it was a block quote from Laura Vanderkam that said this:

In short, lawns are incredibly inefficient, and not just from an environmental perspective. Maintenance requires time and money, which people usually claim are in short supply. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ American Time Use Survey, the average father of school-aged kids spends 1.6 hours a week on lawn and garden care — more time than he spends on reading, talking, playing or doing educational activities with his kids combined.

Now, as I mentioned, I like my lawn and I enjoy the time spent caring for it when I get to do so.  I”m not too concerned about the use of time, 1.6 hours per week spent outside is probably a healthy release for most busy Americans.  What concerned me the most was her suggestion that the average American father spends less than 1.6 hours per week reading, talking, playing, or doing educational activities with his kids combined.

As a researcher, I traced back Vanderkam’s statistics with the Bureau of Labor Statistics, and my numbers don’t match hers.  According to my calculations, the survey shows that fathers spend on average 2.38 hours per week involved in reading, talking, playing, or doing educational activities.  However, if one removes the time spent on play or hobbies, the time is less than 1 hour per week involved in all other things.

What a sad state of affairs to know that dad’s are shirking the privilege and responsibility of fatherhood in such a devastating way.  Children need their fathers and it is the responsibility of Christian fathers to pass on the faith once for all delivered to the saints.  The faith will not be passed on in 2 1/2 hours per week.  Psalm 78 exhorts fathers,

5He established a testimony in Jacob
and appointed a law in Israel,
which he commanded our fathers
to teach to their children,
6 that the next generation might know them,
the children yet unborn,
and arise and tell them to their children,
7 so that they should set their hope in God
and not forget the works of God,
but keep his commandments;