What Time?

Wow! So I really do live a life of leisure! I guess what with running my business and caring for my kids I missed it. Good to know.

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I guess that means since I've been housebound since Friday (due to snow) and will be for the next few days (due to more snow on the way) I'm actually on vacation? Sweet.

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Driving is not leisure. Leisure is doing something I don't HAVE to do, because I actually WANT to do it.

Fortunately, I've had quite a bit of leisure… even though I'm home with sick kids today… we watched a movie I WANTED to watch, they whined very little, I wrote my blog, etc.

Tomorrow, it's back to WORK.

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I agree. It's all about definitions. My leisure time would have to be alone, and me not doing something for someone else. Which pretty much leaves sleeping and showering.

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You've got to be kidding me! Those leisurely measuring men were surely donning leisure suits. And so that is the end of that.

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This is just another way of stating what has been thought/said/suggested for centuries: mom's don't work. It doesn't surprise me in the slightest that someone has found another way to "prove" that SAHMs live the life of luxury.

Of course, my reading blogs while I **eat breakfast** is leisure time, too–because doing what biologically needs to be done (feeding myself) while enjoying myself is a treat. Nice, huh?

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It is certainly about definitions but also about attitude. Right now I am reading blogs and commenting. I enjoy that more than just about anything but it is considered work. I have to write several articles today and I also enjoy that immensely, but I get paid for it so it too is work. Cooking a meal for people who will complain about it is definitely work but I don't have to do it and I don't get paid for it, so is that leisure?

Leisure time for me is being able to sit down with a book I want to read and actually be able to read it for at least 20 minutes. Or sitting on a beach anywhere.

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Buried in the article was a note that Mr. Robinson, the sociologist, is divorced and lives alone. Not a big surprise there. I agree that it depends on what the definition of "is" is (where have I heard that before?).

I think it would be interesting and informative if any of The Mother's readers tried to actually make a time diary for a "normal" week (including a weekend) and report back. Don't crucify me, it's just a suggestion. Come up with your own "fair" definition of leisure and be brutally honest. I suggest defining leisure as anything not "directly" part of work (at home or office), "hands-on" chores (eg time loading and unloading a dishwasher, but not the 45min for it to run), direct child care (watching a TV show with your child is leisure). Sleeping is not leisure, unless it's not in contiguity with going to bed at night and does not start until you are actually trying to sleep. Volunteering for anything..leisure time. Cooking for regular meals, not leisure. Baking cookies, leisure. Showering in excess of 5 (or 10?) minutes or any baths or jacuzzi, leisure. Blogging or reading blogs, leisure (unless you are getting paid specifically for what you are writing). All exercise is leisure, including the excess time before and after (including taking another shower. I agree with Mother that driving is leisure time, unless you are a truck driver or do deliveries for work. Any takers?

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You're right Mother, it's all about defining the term "leisure time." But damn they got a lot of press from this one, didn't they? Good for whoever wanted it.

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Dr. Dad – great idea! Anyone with enough leisure time to keep a journal?

I think there are a lot of people who screw off on social networking sites and blogging all day long who complain they never have any "free time." This guy's message might be for them. HOWEVER, I would consider leisure time any time you do not "have" to do anything, so you are free to choose to do something for pleasure or to simply relax.

Leisure time is not the 10 minutes you spend checking your email. It's not the twenty minutes you fritter away reading blogs so you can forget your kid's tantrum or prep yourself for the next task on your to do list. That is numbing time, taking a breath time, trying to escape time.

There is something to be said about prioritizing your time, but if someone thinks you can add up all these little pockets of spare moments to make "leisure" time… mmmm, no.

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Wait. Are you calling the sociologist a scientist? Well, I guess in the broadest sense of the word…

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In the sense that they do studies in the scientific way, sure. Forgot I had to parse my terms here.

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Sheesh, with all that leisure, who needs bon bons?

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