The parents who are just too busy to play with their kids

It found that “quality time” spent with the family is diminishing, with a third of parents devoting less than 10 hours a week to playing with their children.

More than half of children are now said to spend most of their play time without their parents, and 40 per cent of parents had not taken their children to play at a park in the past year.

The “increasingly busy lives” of parents is blamed, with a third of adults in full-time employment saying they have too little leisure time on their hands.

When they do have time to spare, only one in five adults ranks playing sport or going to the gym as one of their preferred activities, a statistic which makes the UK one of the least active nations, says the report, commissioned by the appliance maker, Beko.

It found that women had three hours less leisure time each week than men, and that young people in the early years of their careers were worst affected - with 42 per cent of 22 year-olds likely to cancel their evening plans because of work commitments.

Beko’s Zeynep Özbil said: “The report shows people lead busy and often unplanned lives and this has a critical negative impact on our leisure time.”