My dad was an older guy when he had kids, and pretty old school as a father He didn't play with us all the time, but we ate every meal as a family We darted in and out of his office asking kid questions, which he tolerated to a fault He read to us most nights, he tucked us in

To clarify, my dad did play with his kids, it was just a more sporadic thing. Often he would swing us around after dinner for a few minutes while we were still at the table The absolute best was when he'd pretend to be a shark or an alligator and hunt us in the pool

Thing is, my dad liked his newspaper, radio shows and occasionally a movie but other than his work (which he also enjoyed) he didn't have that much going on He really did love talking to us and interacting with us throughout the day, we were an interesting element of his life

I do wonder if people are just more bored with their kids now, because it's harder for a child to compete with the endless options for inputs which many adults have plugged in at all waking hours Maybe it really is the phones