This Is The Lovely Parenting Task Most Irish Mums And Dads Wish They Had More Time To Do

One of my absolute favourite parent-tasks – if you can even call it that – is reading to my children at bedtime.

I love these quiet moments, all snuggled up on one of their beds together, when they are sleepy, cuddly and oh-so-eager for mama to read them their favourite stories. Most often we have to read two stories, as they usually want one each – or there will be nights when they want bedtime stories in both Norwegian and English, and so I (happily) do both.

And before you think I am spoiling them; know that these moments are probably just as relaxing and comforting to me as they are to them. And, to be honest, something I look forward to as the perfect end to our busy days.

Most of us know by now how important reading to our children is. It develops their imagination and their vocabulary. It teaches them lessons and makes them ask questions. It will, hopefully, make them love reading by themselves too – even though I hope mine will want me to keep reading to them, long after they also know how to read themselves.

The sad thing is, though, that our busy lives and everyone’s obsession with technological devices makes a lot of parents spend less time reading to their children than what they would have liked to have done. In fact, according to new research carried out by iReach Insights on behalf of the Arts Council, it found that over half of Irish parents questioned wanted to spend more time reading with their children.

And to get families to ditch the phones and tablets and come together over a good book, the Arts Council have just launched a new campaign, featuring ome notable Irish talking about their favorite books from when they were growing up and what reading means to them.