If 2 people work 8-5 by the time they pick up kids from daycare, get home, make dinner, eat, baths and it is bedtime for the kids so not much quality time. Then in am get ready for work, eat, etc and drive-not much quality time there.
Speak for yourself.
First off, very few people actually work 8 to 5 and have kids in childcare for 7:30 to 5:30, or 7 to 6 (average child is in child care for 30 hours a week).
Secondly, in the morning:
- There are two adults. There is plenty of time for a five minute shower, and a ten minute breakfast. The rest of the time - anywhere from an hour to 2.5 hours of awake time - can be quality time. This includes: snuggling on the couch, chatting while eating breakfast, discussing today's homework, brushing the LO's teeth, or wiping his butt, or getting him dressed, or nursing. (This is all going to vary on the age of the kid, my kids are 3.5 and 10.) It also may involve making toast together, or making a smoothie together, or doing an impromptu dance party.
- On the commute to school and/ or daycare - well it depends on if it's a driving day or a walking day. Walking day is a lot of time (20 minutes) to chat on the way. Driving day is quick for the older kid, but then about 15 minutes of chatting about the day with a toddler. Then at daycare, it's 15 minutes of snuggling in and chatting with the dcp while snuggling.
Then, on the way home, reverse. (Although in our house, it's the opposite parent, as we split the drop off/ pick up duties, and we offset our work hours). Chatting with the dcp, then snuggles and chatting with the toddler in the car. Then racing to the classroom to pick up big bro, then chatting with big bro on the walk back to the car, and the short drive home. On music days, then it's racing from tree to tree waiting for music to get out. On baseball practice days, it's playing on the playground during practice. On baseball game days, generally one parent is home making dinner with the toddler (and often that is literally - he likes to help in the kitchen) while the other parent is at the baseball game.
Then it's a nice dinner at the table, talking about our days. Then, it's evening chores. But there again - the big boy helps load the dishwasher, the little guy likes to wash dishes. One parent often is playing or helping with homework when the other packs up lunch for the next day. Bath night is 2x a week, so I don't see how that's a big time suck (#1) and how is that NOT quality time? Playing in the bath?
Then there's reading stories before bed (more quality time!), or playing chess or mousetrap or coloring or...
Quality time is what you make of it. We easily get 2+ hours in the morning and 3.5-5 hours at night. That's a pretty high quantity and it's easy to get quality if you try. Sure, you can plop your kids in front of the TV when you cook dinner (don't get me wrong, we do that too sometimes!)
I don't know if the "lack of quality time" was your own experience (if so, sorry), or if you are just extrapolating what you think happens. However, more than one study has shown that kids get *more* quality time with their *working* parents now than they did with their SAHPs in the 70s.