So, today a friend of mine IM-ed me this link: http://www.parentdish.com/2010/01/29/moms-have-more-leisure-time-than-they-think/
Its from parentdish.com and is about a study where researchers discovered that mom's have more than 30 hours of "leisure time" a week.
SHOCKING! isn't it. Your first thought is "IMPOSSIBLE! Who the hell were THEY using in their study, a stay-at-home-mom with only one kid who happens to go to a boarding school? It must be a guy doing the research." Well, you got one thing right, the research WAS done by a guy, but the scary thing is...IT'S TRUE!
"What the Hell Did Lori Do Today?" was a blog I started to find out exactly that, what the HELL was I doing with my time. Each day just seemed to slip by and I felt like I wasn't getting anything done. And worse, I felt like those around me were thinking I was just sitting there twiddling my thumbs and not doing what I was SUPPOSE to be doing. For several weeks I keep very detailed lists of what I did almost every second of the day. It was actually gratifying to be able to look back and see that I WAS busy. I WAS getting stuff done. AND I WAS making a different in people's lives...mostly the lives of my two little boys.
I enjoyed keeping a "time diary," but it was also pretty time-consuming, and eventually I had to dedicate my precious time to other more important things.
But then this article popped up and my very detailed list gave me the chance to test this person's study.
I haven't done anything near as scientific as I'm assuming this researcher has done, but I have gone back through a few days of my time-log and pulled out the times in my day that I would consider "leisure" (time when I'm not working or taking care of another person or responsiblity). I added up all the time, did some division, and low-and-behold, I discovered that I had ON AVERAGE 5 hours of "leisure" time EACH DAY! Times that by 7 days a week, and I seem to be above average with 36 hour a week.
Yup, I was SHOCKED! If I had that much time each week for "fun and relaxation", then why in the hell was I so stressed out and tired?
Okay, so then I asked myself, "what is the true definition of leisure?" Of course, I did what any good 2010 blogger would do, and I "googled" it:
Dictionary.com says:
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lei⋅sure
–noun
1. freedom from the demands of work or duty: She looked forward to retirement and a life of leisure.
2. time free from the demands of work or duty, when one can rest, enjoy hobbies or sports, etc.: Most evenings he had the leisure in which to follow his interests.
3. unhurried ease: a work written with leisure and grace.
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With that in hand, I went back to my time-log and looked closer at the time I indicated was "leisure" and I discovered two things:
1) Commuting back and forth to work may be a time when I'm alone and not doing anything much more than driving, BUT I wouldn't say that I'm "free from the demands of work or duty." It's because of WORK that I'm in the car in the first place. It's not like I said "Hey Honey, lets go take a drive through the country." No, I'm stuck in stop and go traffic for anywhere from 45 minutes to an hour, dealing with annoying people who are cutting me off, because they just NEED to be one car ahead of me. Or trying to avoid the crazy woman who is trying to multitask by putting on her make-up ON her way to work, rather than BEFORE she actually gets into the car. And of course, I'm also sitting in a car, taking forever to get somewhere while I'm stressing out that I'm going to be late getting to where I'm going anyway. Nope, I would NOT consider commuting to be "unhurried ease."
2) A good chunk of the average 5 hours is actually split up into MANY small pieces: 5 minutes chatting with a neighbor after walking my son to the bus stop. 10 minutes checking personal email. 15 minutes playing with my kids. Yes, these things ARE "leisurely", but it sure doesn't make me feel "relaxed" when I'm bouncing from one thing to another. Combine them all together, and I'm just feeling STRESSED OUT that I'm juggling so many different things.
The rest of the average 5 hours...well, 45 minutes to an hour for lunch...often interrupted by some work need. And finally, a block of time, sitting on the couch, eating dinner, and watching TV with my hubby. Yeah, that I would TOTALLY consider "leisure." Unfortunately I'm usually so exhausted by that time, that I'm really not always enjoying this "leisure" time to it's full extent, and typically I drift off to sleep before I even really want too.
So after a little research on my own...YES, it's TRUE. We DO have 30+ hours a week of "LEISURE TIME." It may sure sound like a lot of time, but maybe, just maybe, it's really not enough. I'm sure with a little more digging, I can come up with ANOTHER study that would tell me exactly how much "leisure" time a human being REALLY needs. I'll be sure to post that study if I ever find it.
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