My View: Special moments many families miss out on by not reading at bedtime

Today's parents lead such busy lives that they no longer have time to read bedtime stories to their children, a survey has found.

Sixty per cent said they had stories read to them when they were young, but nearly half now just turn off the lights and close the door.

A study published this week found that while mothers and fathers are full of good intentions, they find it hard to fit stories into their busy schedules.

Of the 2,000 parents surveyed by telecoms firm TalkTalk, only 52 per cent said they read bedtime stories to their children. The remaining 48 per cent said their lives were too hectic to squeeze a story in. Yet eight out of 10 surveyed agreed that children's development can be boosted by bedtime reading.

The worrying statistics come after a Government adviser last year warned that middle-class children are struggling to learn how to talk because working parents are unable to find the time to help with speech development.

As a working mother of two young children, I find this quite difficult to understand.

Reading a bedtime story has been a ritual in our house since my children could sit still long enough to look at the Gruffalo. We started at just a few months old, snuggling into bed after bathtime to look at picture books together. This has progressed over the years to stories and gradually longer books. Now my children often read to me at bedtime. Or else, much to my upset, they choose to read alone in their bedrooms.

Either way, I feel that I have done my best to introduce them to my love of books from an early age. Neither of them are prize-winning readers, but they both love books and feel something is missing on the odd occasion they are too late to bed for a book.

My husband and I both live busy lives and I can see that, for some, it may seem a chore at the end of a hectic day to have to read with their youngsters. But the reward from spending just 10 minutes special time together cannot be overestimated for parent or child. For me, it is sometimes the only chance I get to spend with my children during a busy working week, and for them it is important as a way of routine and reassurance beyond the literary benefits.

My father was a GP, and, as a child, I remember seeing very little of him. One thing I do remember is him reading me The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe, by CS Lewis, at bedtime. As well as instilling a love of that book in me, it also gave me precious time with my father that I may not otherwise have had.

We are all busy, and have many, many demands on our precious time, but none can be more important than those special moments with our children.