A typical working parent spends just 19 minutes a day looking after their children, official figures revealed yesterday.
The startling research shows the devastating impact that working full-time has on children who hardly see their parents.
With less than 20 minutes spent with their parents every day, this is only enough time to eat a quick breakfast together or have a couple of bed-time stories.

The Office for National Statistics looked at nearly 4,950 people over the age of 16 in Britain to find out what they do all day.
The findings make grim reading for working parents who already worry that they spend too much time at work - and too little at home.
Parents who work full-time spend just 19 minutes every day "caring for [their] own children", according to ONS's "Time Use Survey", published yesterday.

A further 16 minutes is spent looking after their children as a "secondary activity", but this means that they are doing something else - such as the weekly supermarket shop - at the same time. The findings come at a time when record numbers of women are working as huge mortgages and soaring household bills force them to earn a living.

Official figures show that 12.6million women have a job, compared to just 8.5million in the 1970s.
The ONS looked specifically at working women in Britain and what they do during a typical 24-hour period to create a typical "Diary of a Working Mum".

They sleep less and work more than any other "type" of woman - and still have to do about two-and-a-half hours "domestic work" every day, it reveals. A typical working woman gets nearly 40 minutes less sleep every night than a full-time mother who gets more than nine hours sleep every night.

This is because she gets up earlier to travel into work every day, or spends time every night doing a long list of domestic chores before going to bed. On average, a working woman toils at work for over five hours a day, although this figure appears low because it includes holidays and weekends when no work is done.

Recent research showed that most mothers with young families would prefer to stay at home and look after their children. A survey of working mothers found that just six per cent wanted to work full-time, according to Prima magazine. Half wanted to combine bringing up their children with a part-time job, while more than a quarter wanted to be a full-time mother. They were asked: "In an ideal world, what would you like to be?" Twenty- six per cent said they wanted to be a "housewife and mother". The most popular response, given by 50 per cent, was to be a "mum who works part-time".

Maire Fahey, editor of Prima, said: "In the 1980s, we thought we could have it all and aspired to high-flying careers and happy families.
"But the cracks are starting to show. Family life is suffering and something has got to give."

The new ONS survey shows that life is also extremely tough for fathers with young families, particularly those whose youngest children is under the age of four. They sleep less, works more and do more "domestic" work than any other "type" of man, such as one with older children or one with no children.

A typical father whose youngest child is under four gets less than eight hours sleep a night and does more than three hours of domestic chores every day. They are also working more than one hour a day longer than their male colleagues who do not have children.
Overall, the ONS found that a typical person's 24-hours is mostly spent sleeping, working and watching television, which are the top three activities.

A woman will spend 8.3 hours asleep, 2.4 hours watching television, DVDs or videos and 2.2 hours working.
A man will spend eight hours alseep, 2.8 hours watching television, DVDs or videos and 3.5 hours working.
Just 24 minutes in 24 hours is spent reading, a figure which drops to just 10 minutes for younger people.