quality time

Its use as a noun expression ("quality time") began in the 1970s.{{Cite book |last1=Mostofsky |first1=David I. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=yXdGAQAAQBAJ&dq=expression+quality+time+began+in+the+1970&pg=PA13 |title=Behavioral Dentistry |last2=Fortune |first2=Farida |date=2013-10-07 |publisher=John Wiley & Sons |isbn=978-1-118-76457-2 |language=en}} One of the earliest records of this phrase in print was in the Annapolis newspaper The Capital, January 1973, in the article "How To Be Liberated":

{{blockquote|The major goal of each of these role changes is to give a woman time to herself, Ms. Burton explained. "A woman's right and responsibility is to be self fulfilling," she said. She gives "quality time" rather than "quantity time" to each task, whether it be writing, cleaning the house or tending the children.}}

In the context of public schooling, the National Commission on Excellence in Education began to use the phrase circa 1983. "Quality time" was described in a 1983 letter by the principal of Hampton High School to U.S. Secretary of Education Terrell Bell. Principal Scholtz wrote, "Quality time will be enhanced by reducing that time spent by teachers on discipline and on administrative duties" and thereby "freeing teachers to do what they do best...teach".{{Cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=GK-1TqseagkC&q=quality%20time |title=Oversight of Quality in Education: Report of the National Commission on Excellence in Education |date=1984 |publisher=U.S. Government Printing Office |page=42 |language=en}}

By 1985, the phrase was in common use in books about parenting and parenting styles. Examples include A Parents' Guide to Quality Time with Preschoolers (1984),{{Cite book |last=Burtt |first=Kent Garland |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=vLlzwgB9zp8C&q=%22Quality+time%22 |title=Smart Times: A Parent's Guide to Quality Time with Preschoolers |date=1984 |publisher=Harper & Row |isbn=978-0-06-015287-1 |language=en}} The Quality Time Almanac: A Sourcebook of Ideas and Activities for Parents and Kids (1986),{{Cite book |last=Sullivan |first=St Clair Adams |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=9K8_SRg3VKYC |title=The Quality Time Almanac: A Sourcebook of Ideas and Activities for Parents and Kids |date=1986 |publisher=Doubleday |isbn=978-0-385-18293-5 |language=en}} and Parentips: Quality Time with Kids (1986).{{Cite book |last=Neely |first=Bonnie Burgess |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=7DbJg2LGbM8C&q=%22Quality%20time%22 |title=Parentips: Quality Time with Kids |date=1987 |publisher=Pocket Books |isbn=978-0-671-60782-1 |language=en}}

Gary Champan's 1992 book The Five Love Languages defined and popularized the phrase's contemporary usage.

Quality Time is also the title of a 1996 fiction (likely romance) novel by British author Norma Curtis.{{Cite book |last=Curtis |first=Norma |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=aRSaAAAACAAJ |title=Quality Time |date=1996 |publisher=HarperCollins Publishers |isbn=978-0-00-649025-8 |language=en}}

The Time Bind, a 1997 book,{{cite book|ref=none |last=Russell Hochschild |first=Arlie

|author-link=Arlie Russell Hochschild

|title=The Time Bind: When Work Becomes Home and Home Becomes Work

|url=https://archive.org/details/timebindwhenwork00hoch

|url-access=registration |publisher=Metropolitan Books

|location=New York |year=1997 |isbn=978-0-8050-4471-3}} [https://books.google.com/books?id=9YCJVeSHodEC&q=%22Time+bind%22 Google Print] was mentioned in Newsweek's multi-page feature about "The Myth of Quality Time". The same issue of Newsweek had a full-page review{{cite magazine |magazine=Newsweek

|title=Time Bind? What Time Bind?

|author=Marc Peyser |date=May 12, 1997 |page=69}} of another 1997 book, Time for Life, which emphasizes that most people have a flawed "ability to separate faulty perception of time use from reality."{{cite book

|title=Time for Life: The Surprising Ways Americans Use Their Time

|author1=John Robinson |author2=Geooffrey Godbey |year=1997

|isbn=978-0-271-03426-3 |publisher=Penn State Press}} Author Robinson's diary-based research shows that 15 hours per week of "free time" (the greatest category of time used) goes into TV viewing.

File:Amalie Lindegren Threading the needle.jpg|Swedish painter Amalie Lindegren's 1858 painting, "A grandmother with a grandson threading a needle"

File:Social games and group dances; (1920) (14783212213).jpg|Children engage in social dancing and singing games, 1920.

File:Jew teaches his grandson to read.jpg|Polish Jewish grandparents in Biala Podlaska teach their grandson to read, 1920.

File:Bundesarchiv Bild 146-1976-141-21, Berlin, Tanzcafé.jpg|Couples share quality time through dance in Berlin, Germany, 1925.

File:Dancers in restaurant Tenho.jpg|Working-class couples share quality time through dance in Tenho, Finland, 1974.

File:Cycling mother and daughter in a forest.JPG|Mother and daughter bicycling together, 2012.

File:Father & Son Sharing Music Skills.jpg|Guitarist Simphiwe Sekhute plays music with his son in South Africa, 2013.

File:Mother and daughter learn calligraphy.jpg|A mother and daughter learn calligraphy together, 2013.

File:Mother and daughter in the gardens - geograph.org.uk - 4852942.jpg|An adult mother and daughter converse in England's Sheffield Park and Garden, 2016.

File:Happiness of Mother & daughter.jpg|Nepalese mother and daughter enjoy an outing, 2018.

File:Having a Conversation (51213882768).jpg|Two individuals engage in a quality time conversation in Old Town Alexandria, 2021.

• Dialogue
• Double burden
• Gemütlichkeit
• Kids' club
• Work–family balance in the United States
• Work–family conflict
• Work–life balance

{{reflist|32em}}

• [http://www.theidioms.com/quality-time/ The Idioms]
• [http://www.phrases.org.uk/meanings/297250.html The Phrase Finder]

{{DEFAULTSORT:Quality Time}}

Category:Family

Category:Interpersonal relationships

Category:Personal life

Category:Sociological terminology

Category:1970s neologisms