On average, American kids ages 3 to 12 spent 29 hours a week in school, eight hours more that they did in 1981. They also did more household work and participated in more of such organized activities as soccer and ballet. Involvement in sports, in particular, rose almost 50% from 1981 to 1997: boys now spend an average of four hours a week playing sports; girls log hall that time. All in all, however, children’s leisure time dropped from 40% of the day in 1981 to 25%
美国3至12岁的孩子平均每周在学校呆29个小时，比1981年多了8个小时。他们还做了更多的家务活，参加了更多有组织的活动，如足球和芭蕾舞。从1981年到1997年，参与体育运动的人数增加了近50%：男孩现在平均每周花四个小时参加体育运动；而女孩们待在大厅里。然而，总的来说，儿童的休闲时间从1981年的40%下降到了25%
“Children are affected by the same time crunch that affects their parents,” says Sandra Hofferth, who headed the recent study of children’s timetable. A chief reason, she says, is that more mothers are working outside the home. (Nevertheless, children in both double-income and “male breadwinner” households spent comparable amounts of time interacting with their parents 19 hours and 22 hours respectively. In contrast, children spent only 9 hours with their single mothers.)
Sandra Hofferth是最近一项儿童时间表研究的负责人，她说：“时间紧张影响孩子们的父母，也同样影响孩子们。”她说，一个主要原因是越来越多的母亲在外工作。（尽管如此，双收入家庭和“男性养家糊口者”家庭的儿童与父母互动的时间分别为19小时和22小时。相比之下，儿童与单身母亲相处的时间仅为9小时。）
All work and no play could make for some very messed-up kids. “Play is the most powerful way a child explores the world and learns about himself,” says T. Berry Brazelton, professor at Harvard Medical School. Unstructured play encourages independent thinking and allows the young to negotiate their relationships with their peers, but kids ages 3 to 12 spent only 12 hours a week engaged in it.
只工作不玩耍会让一些孩子变得一团糟。哈佛大学医学院教授T.Berry Brazelton说：“游戏是孩子探索世界和了解自己最有力的方式"。非结构化游戏鼓励独立思考，并允许年轻人与同龄人协商他们的关系，但3至12岁的孩子每周只花12个小时参与其中。
The children sampled spent a quarter of their rapidly decreasing “free time” watching television. But that, believe it or not, was one of the findings parents might regard as good news. If they’re spending less time in front of the TV set, however, kids aren’t replacing it with reading. Despite efforts to get kids more interested in books, the children spent just over an hour a week reading. Let’s face it, who’s got the time?
被抽样的孩子们把他们迅速减少的“空闲时间”的四分之一花在看电视上。但信不信由你，这是父母可能认为是好消息的发现之一。然而，如果孩子们在电视机前的时间减少了，他们就不会用阅读来代替。尽管努力让孩子们对书更有兴趣，但孩子们每周只花一个多小时阅读。我们面对的是，谁有时间？
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