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White Hutchinson Leisure & Learning Group, Kansas City, MO, USA

The modern family: why children rule

According to a new National Bureau of Economic Research paper (www.nber.org/ papers/ w23087) of how the family and parenting has changed over time, children now rule the modern family (it took researchers to tell us what we already knew). They found that during the 20th Century, the American family transformed from one dominated by the father to a more egalitarian one in which the wife and the children have become empowered because competition within the family has changed.

"The key intuition is that the rise in relative earnings of wives increased competition between spouses for the love and affection of their children," the researchers say, "while the decline in family size reduced competition between children for resources from their parents. The combined effect has empowered children."

Implications for CLVs:

Children now hold a powerful vote on what the family does and where they go. Meanwhile, parents hold a veto factor. So any community leisure venue or FEC that hopes to attract a family with children needs to have high appeal to both the children and the parents and not offer either a reason to veto a visit. For children's entertainment/edutainment centers, this means that the parent, and especially the mom, needs to find it a pleasant experience. This typically means an environment that isn't so noisy that it drives you nuts and one that has a nice café. For dad, beer, a dad pacifier, can make it a tolerable experience.

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