British dads say that the 2020 pandemic has helped  them to prioritise family time and according to a survey commissioned by Accurist watches, they now spend an extra 6 hours and 36 minutes more with their kids each week.

And while a quarter of UK dads think it’s okay to be late for a Zoom meeting, the majority (94%) believe it’s not acceptable to turn up late for a school play. 30% of dads say they’ve turned up fashionably late for dinner with friends, yet only 3.8% say they’ve  been late for a child’s graduation.

A spokesperson from Accurist watches says: “We’ve been obsessed with perfect timekeeping since the 1940s, and we’re delighted to see that British dads are making time for what is important; creating memories with their loved ones.”

Post pandemic, 56% of UK dads have changed the way they work with 32% following a hybrid working week, 10% preferring to stay at home with the kids and 12% working traditional office hours but making sure they spend more time with their family in the evenings and at weekends.

Thanks to prioritising family time, half of British dads say they feel closer to their kids, 42% say it’s easier to talk to and listen to them and a third find it easier to relax. The things they like doing most with their children are –

 

• Watching films (76%)
• Talking (65%)
• Playing sport (51%)
• Cooking together (50%)
• Camping (23%)
• Making music (14%)

 

When it comes to Father’s Day, 45% say that a hug would be their ideal gift while 36% say they’d  treasure a homemade card. 24% would like a watch, but only 9% think they’ll get one.

Some habits die hard and half of British dads still trot out the phrase ‘Money doesn’t grow on trees.’ 41% of dads still say ‘Ask your mother’ and 25% admit they tell kids that eating carrots is good for their eyesight.

Neuroscientist Dr. Rachel Taylor says that this shift towards quality family time is good for kids. She says: “ Kids need 40 hugs a day and as we can see from our research, dads enjoy them too. Gone are the days when fathers hid behind newspapers and rarely hugged their kids. This shift towards family time benefits everyone and with Father’s Day coming up, what better way to remind them every minute of the day how much they’re loved.  That’s why a watch makes such a great gift, because when they look at it, they associate it with happy memories”