The UK’s leading reading charity Booktrust launched the ‘Get Dads Reading’ campaign, challenging dads to match mums in reading with their children. Read on for more information… but first, have a watch of an introductory video by James Patterson.

UK dads trail far behind their partners when it comes to reading to their children. A new poll, carried out for Booktrust by Opinium, reveals that just 13% are the main reader with their child, with a quarter of fathers saying that the demand for them to work late means that they do not have time to read together more often.

These findings are a major concern as a father’s involvement in their child’s early reading is proven to boost academic success, leading to improved social and emotional wellbeing. To fight this crisis Booktrust is launching a major campaign to raise awareness of the importance of dads as reading role models for their children.

Further research, commissioned by Booktrust from the Institute of Education, sheds more light on this hidden crisis. A series of in-depth interviews reveals that many fathers see reading as a female domain, and are working in isolation, rather than sharing practices and drawing on the networks available to mothers. When they do read to their children, fathers favour their daughters over their sons, reading to them for longer, and more often.

Booktrust is calling on dads up and down the country to match mums’ efforts in reading with their children. To launch the campaign Booktrust’s patron, HRH, The Duchess of Cornwall and bestselling author James Patterson – 2010 Children’s Choice Book Award Author of the Year and founding partner of the Booktrust’s Children’s Reading Fund in association which his publisher Random House – will this afternoon visit a thriving dads reading group to see how dads and their children benefit from sharing books. At the moment, research shows that at formal literacy events for children, only 10% of the parents attending are dads.

The research carried out for Booktrust by Opinium surveyed 1,016 parents of children aged 0-11 – and also reveals that:

43% of mums read to their child everyday in comparison to just 26% of dads.

The top reasons dads give for not reading with their children more often are:

1. I get home from work too late (26%)
2. I feel too tired (22%)
3. I feel like I read to my child enough (19%)
4. I don’t have enough time (18%)
5. My partner likes to do the reading (12%)

37% of dads claimed to read to their child everyday – but only 19% of mums reported that this was the case.

Commenting on the research, Viv Bird, Booktrust Chief Executive, said:

‘The most crucial thing for dads to understand is that if kids see their dads reading they’re more likely to enjoy it themselves. There is evidence that boys are slipping further behind girls in reading – and this emphasises how important it is that dads are positive role models to their sons as well as their daughters when it comes to reading.’

James Patterson – who started writing for children in 2005 in order to encourage his son to read and has developed his own website, ReadKiddoRead, to help dads find books to read with their children – adds:

‘If we can get children reading and enjoying books, we open up a whole world of possibility to them. I believe that dads have a huge role to play in encouraging their children to read. We need to give fathers the support they need in reading to their children. If I can help dads to understand their role in making books and reading more important in children’s lives, I’ll be a happy man’

As part of the Booktrust campaign dads will have access to a whole range or resources and guidance about how to get the most out of reading with their children. A host of celebrity dads – Booktrust’s ‘Dads Army’ – including James Patterson and Dan Snow will lend their support to the campaign. See www.booktrust.org.uk and #dadsreading.

H is a bookworm – she has an entire Billy bookcase from Ikea full of books (and some toys, to be fair), but I’ll never tire of buying books, and I’m always on the lookout for quirky titles and different ones. I used to be a Barefoot Books Ambassador a couple of years ago, but had to give it up – so if you know the kind of books they do, you get the idea of what we like.

Somehow, I stumbled across Books For Bugs (I can’t remember how!) – they’re based fairly locally to us and do some fairs, and their website and shop is based on selling affordable books to parents. I bought some in their recent sale which arrived today for presents, and they fit perfectly into the kind of books we love. Add to this there’s loads of phonics books (and yes, I do still have concerns about H and her starting school this September, despite her doing really well at her private nursery preschool) and you can buy them at a good price (all their board books and story books are just £2.99 each, no matter how high the RRP), PLUS there’s reviews or short summaries of the books on each page to help you choose.

Their shipping price is really reasonable, and the books arrive well packed and quick – all in all I’m really happy with the service we received and highly recommend them to you – keep up to date with them on Facebook for any sales or deals that might be happening too – they’re running competitions when they hit a certain number of followers!

Have you bought the excellent ‘Toddlers: An Instruction Manual’ by Joanne Mallon yet? Do you really need another reason to buy it? It’s full of useful advice from parents, and isn’t just one perspective on dealing with a toddler; it’s many – and as I’ve said before, we’re already putting some of the suggestions into practice – and coming up with brilliant results. Even moreso, you know you’re not alone!

Joanne has kindly let us have another extract from the book – and we’ve opened comments below – let us know what you think, or come and post on our Facebook Group!

Be a parent, not a pal – why you are not your child’s best friend, and never will be.
I really despair when I hear parents referring to their child as their “best friend”. You are not their best friend, nor they yours, and if you honestly think that that’s the case, both of you need to get out more.

Why would a three year old want to be best friends with a 30-something woman? Why would a grown man get his friendship needs from a little kid? Your child needs a parent, not a best friend. They can go to nursery and make plenty of friends. But at home, they need a parent, and they need you for that.

You might think that you stepped into the parent role when you had your baby, but did you really? I think that we only fully step up to the parenting role once our children start challenging that role – when we have to be strong enough to say no to them, and set boundaries.

Many of us find it hard to discipline our children – it smacks too much of being the boring grown up, when we might not feel particularly grown up at any age. Also, this issue can cast a shadow back to our own childhoods, especially if our parents treated us in a way that we didn’t like. Shouting at children and smacking them was much more acceptable to previous generations than it is right now. We have to find new ways of doing things and forge our own path.

So however you choose to do things, you’re doing your child no favours if you choose to be a chum rather than what they need – a parent who can make the hard choices, say no when they need to and always provide a strong foundation of unwavering love. Friends come and go, but family is for life.

From: Toddlers: An Instruction Manual (c) Joanne Mallon 2011

You can buy the paperback here and the Kindle edition here. Thank you Joanne!