DESPITE THEIR LIVES' HURRIED PACE, KIDS FEEL LOVED, VALUED

In researching her book, Ask the Children: What America's Children Really Think About Working Parents, Ellen Galinsky found that parents' work doesn't affect children nearly as much as their parenting skills do.

"The most important thing is that there be real feeling and love between the parent and the child," she said.

Y-Press recently went to Greenbriar Elementary School in Washington Township to interview children whose parents work. Matt Wagner, 11; Jessika Knight, 11; Nimra Azmi, 9; Wayne Blackman, 11; and Molly Roy, 11, all agreed that work doesn't interfere with their relationships with their parents.

Time spent

MATT: The times I'm with my parents is my dad before school. He stays home with me and my brother so we can catch the bus, and then my mom will pick us up from our after-school program and take us home. And then my dad gets home and we always have dinner home together every night.

JESSIKA: The time I'm with my mom is from 7 to 8 a.m. and then from 6 p.m. till I go to sleep. And the time I'm with my dad is every other weekend, Friday night through Saturday night.

WAYNE: I spend time with my parents every single morning. Afternoons I go to the after-school program and my grandparents pick me up. And I stay at their house 'cause my dad works from 3 till 5 in the morning, and my mom works from 1 to 10. So what I do is I stay nights at my grandma's.

MOLLY: I'm adopted, so I live with my mom. We don't have a dad. I go to the after-school program and I'm usually here till 6, 6:15. But mostly like at night, or on weekends, is the most time I really get to spend with my mom.

NIMRA: I'm only with my parents at dinner time because we just aren't (home). My parents are too busy with my little brother. I think I spend too little time with my parents and too much time with the television.

Job first or family?

JESSIKA: I think my mom puts me way before her work because if there's something I want and if she has to, she'll work another job just to help me pay for it.

WAYNE: I know my mom puts me before her job because if I have to be (somewhere) or if I'm in trouble in school, like I've been, she'll come over.

MOLLY: I think my mom puts me and my sister before her job, because I play a lot of sports and if something goes wrong, she always comes to get us, even if she has to leave work.

MATT: I have a little brother, and sometimes we might have sports practices or another conflict and my parents will come home from work early to get us to that.

NIMRA: I think my parents put me before their work, because if I get sick, they'll come home and take good care of me.

Parents as role models

MOLLY: I'd want to be really 100 percent like my mom because she's been one of the only grown-up persons who's been with me my whole life. She tries her hardest to do her best for me and my sister.

MATT: I probably want to manage my family pretty much like my parents do. My mom makes me feel important and loved. If I get a good grade, my mom and dad will take me out to eat.

JESSIKA: How I'd want to manage my family would be kind of like my mom does. My mom is so special to me, and she always helps me out.

WAYNE: I'd give my parents an A+ because when I get a good grade on my report card, they brag on me, and take me out to eat when it's my birthday.

NIMRA: I would like to raise my daughter like my mom and dad, but I would lift some of the heavy-security rules.

REPORTERS: Ben Hohman, 12; Evan Phillips, 13; and Tom Risk, 12.