If You’re Not Seeing Your Kids Enough in Person, You’re Not Alone

If it seems you and your kids are constantly missing each other in between video games and Snapchat, sadly you might be onto something.

A new study of 1,000 families found that the average parent spends just five hours a week communicating face-to-face with their kids. I was like, What?! It caused me to stop and think about how many actual hours I have one-on-one with each of my kids.

There are so many parents out there who work multiple jobs and have very little "extra" time and some 43 percent say TV time cuts into their family time, while 51 percent say their children spend too much time in their own rooms. And not surprisingly, 44 percent blame their kids sticking their faces into their digital devices for a parent's lack of personal communication with their offspring.

While all of the statistics may be true, I feel it's us, the parents, who have to make certain we are spending quality time one-on-one with our children. I know firsthand how the struggle for this is definitely real. I am a mom of two teenage boys who are much more independent than they used to be, and as proud as I am for that a small part of me wishes they were still my little guys.

The survey, conducted by OnePoll, found that the average kid starts to actively avoid their parents around 13 years old. This makes me so sad as my boys are 13 and 16. Also not surprisingly, a whopping 73 percent of respondents say the teenage years brought about changes in their relationships with their kids.

The poll showed that 46 percent of parents only talk to their kids a maximum of four hours each week, despite the fact that 54 percent wished they could spend more time with them.

They're certainly trying, according to the poll, which found 80 percent of parents try to take an "active interest" in their kids' likes, with 20 percent saying they've learned how to play Fortnite in an effort to relate. And you'll die at this one – a quarter of the parents polled have tried to adopt their youngsters' slang to relate.

Yikes.