Quality time or Quantity time

Sharing my experience related to a parent interaction the other day.This Class IV child had been coming late to school very often,was never dressed up properly and assignments were never submitted on time.I had met the parents regarding this issue earlier also but much of the feedback was not being taken seriously.As a result of parent negligence and concepts not being reinforced,the child was losing confidence in herself and withdrawing in her own shell,teachers at their end were giving a lot of personal attention but home does have a significant role to play.The school day begins with a certain rhythm and if a child is late,he/she will find it difficult to connect,also growing children become more conscious of these things.If parents do not provide support to a child in reinforcing concepts at home,he/she will find it difficult to keep pace with the Classroom proceedings.Children have different learning paces and levels,while some might not require support at all,some may require a lot of it.Coming back to the parent interaction,my first question to the parents was how much time did they spend with their child, the answer was "Both of us are at home these days as we have left our jobs and are looking for new ones.She reaches home watches TV,goes out to play with a friend for three hours,goes for an art class and also for a dance class.She also has a dog and loves to play with it.She has dinner around 10:00pm and sleeps around 11:00pm"There was no mention of how they were engaging with their child at home.There was no space for a reading time with her,sharing time or help in doing the assignments. In fact there was no structure to her day at home.Spending quality time with the child is more important than spending quantity time.Being with the child is more important than being there for the child.