I AM sure that I won’t be the first, or probably the last, to respond to the article by Helen Mead (Reading is not an easy option, column, May 9).

She recounts in great detail how she was too busy and tired to read to her children at bedtime.

Why is it that parents today think that they have the monopoly on busy lives? It makes me seethe, this modern malaise!

When my then wife and I were young parents back in the late eighties, early nineties, I was often working 12 hour shifts and tired as a result.

But, a bedtime story for both of our children was a must, despite how tired we were feeling.

This story-reading not only got them each to sleep, but it was that lovely time to cuddle and bond with them, to ask them about their day.

The reading was essential to teach them each for school.

Too often these days this responsibility is easily off loaded to someone else, seemingly with the buck stopping with nursery schools and schools in general.

Does this fault lie with this modern social media generation who can get anything these days at the touch of a button and so many things are too easily left to others to complete for them?

I’m sorry Helen, but this is life, and having children is as you say a 24/7 job, not just weekends.

Malcolm Higgins,

Bishopthorpe, York