According to a study conducted by OREO earlier this year, around 85 percent of parents surveyed across the GCC region said that spending time together as a family is more important than anything else. The report also revealed that carefree fun has become a rare treat for parents and their children; that it is worth its weight in gold – literally – 59 percent of people surveyed said they would gladly trade part of their salaries for more time with their children every day. While the report suggests that the spirit of childhood may be at risk, parents' desire to have fun with their children is still high. Three out of five parents (65 percent) say spending time having fun with their kids is more important to them than it was to their own parents when they were growing up. Working parents tend to spend less time with their families due to increasing stress and long working hours. Therefore family life has come under threat. In an attempt to dedicate more time and attention to the family unit in people's lives throughout the GCC region, OREO has launched the family leave. This social initiative invites busy parents to leave their offices and join their families at least an hour earlier, at least once a year, enabling them to spend more time with their families and to re-examine their priorities in life. The symbolic one-hour family leave aims to help parents overcome the hurdles that are keeping them away from spending time with their kids, and remind parents of the necessity to celebrate family togetherness. In coming years, the initiative will be taken to the next level, inviting parents to take more hours off their busy schedules for family purposes. Eventually, the initiative hopes to gain relevance and evolve to become an official family holiday for parent employees across the GCC region. “Nowadays, the time families around the world spend together has become rare. Family values form an integral part of the local culture in the Arab world. The goal of OREO's family leave initiative is not only to spread awareness about the importance of family time in this part of the world, but also to connect with executive parents on a personal basis at their workplaces and push them to act today and address this social phenomenon head-on,” said B. Jayachandran, Marketing Director of Kraft Foods. The on-ground campaign this year, which kicked off during early this month saw OREO ambassadors mobilize on the ground throughout the GCC region, visiting a number of companies and engaging with parent employees on an individual level at their office desks to explain the initiative. The ambassadors asked parents in the workplace questions about their family habits such as how much time they spend with their families every day and how they could make more time for their kids. The findings of this survey will be announced after the campaign concludes, providing valuable insights from parents about their own behavior. Participants in OREO family leave initiative will also receive items that remind them of their families while they are in office such as family photo frames, as well as advice on the benefits of family time, and a list of family pledges, such as “I pledge to spend more time with my family because…”. The initiative will be accompanied with an awareness campaign supported by psychologists advice on the benefits of family time. — SG
