14 Sep The disease of workaholic dads

“Olympic rower James Cracknell and Phillip Hodson, the psychotherapist and broadcaster, will this week urge fathers to reduce their working hours and even consider working from home to ensure they are around to help shape their children’s lives.

“According to the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) Britons worked an average 1,669 hours last year. The average in Germany in 2013 was 1,388 hours and 1,489 in France. Americans worked an average of 1,788 hours and the Japanese 1,735 hours.

“Hodson said there was an urgent need for action: ‘There is now an accepted crisis in fatherhood and a crisis with boys in this country. Someone has to show boys how to become me and many British fathers are either absent due to divorce or distant because of work and time pressures.

“‘We are becoming more and more like Japan. When asked who they would call in an emergency, 40% of Japanese men said their boss and only 9% said their wife. Children with active involved fathers are saner, cleverer, less likely to be delinquents or depressed and more likely to get an ‘A’ grade in their studies'”.

Extracted from News: The Sunday Times, September 14th 2014.