It has to be real, and I think a lot of the problems we have as a society is because we don’t acknowledge that family is important, and it has to be people who are present, you know, and mothers and fathers, both are not present enough with children.

Jones is arguing that “family” is not an abstract ideal but a lived practice requiring consistent, attentive presence. He links social dysfunction to a cultural tendency to downplay or sentimentalize family while neglecting the daily work of caregiving. By stressing that both mothers and fathers are “not present enough,” he frames parenting as a shared responsibility rather than a gendered one, and implies that children’s development depends on reliable adult engagement. The quote also carries a moral urgency: acknowledging family’s importance is not merely personal advice but a civic concern, because the quality of relationships in the home reverberates outward into community life.