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[heathrow]

I'm just mystified at the constant devaluation of women's time, especially child-care. Do you find that watching a child's movie or entertaining your child playing tic-tac-toe is truly leisure time? I don't, that's for sure.

Click through to the Washington Post article for a full read. 

Comments

[geobabe1]

Seriously, that's just obnoxious. Time spent waiting for a tow truck is leisure? Fuck you, buddy.

[heathrow]

I can't think of anything more relaxing than sitting in a broken down car waiting for someone to come tow my car, can you?

[lemon_says]

I also don't sit here raptly watching children's movies, though. And he did say that since she was entertaining the kid with the game, it wasn't leisure.

Why is having leisure time something to be defensive about? I'm very busy as a SAHM, but I do have a little time every day to knit or read. That doesn't make me any less busy. This is a semantic argument. Is it NOT leisure because my kids are drawing next to me, or is it leisure because I'm knitting? See what I mean?

I think the guy's a little clueless about childcare, but I don't think he's evil or anything.

[heathrow]

You are right, child care is not classified as leisure. Life before the second cup of coffee.

I think he's a bit bombastic and clueless about the female side of life. Just saying, there's a reason he's divorced.

[geobabe1]

Though he would have classified it as leisure had she not had her child with her, which is just nuts. Just because it's not work doesn't make it automatically leisure--that, to me, should be time where you can do anything you want, and sitting by the side of the road isn't exactly relaxing fun time.

It is true that too many people have this insane need to feel like their every minute is jam-packed with activity, but I think his classification scheme is a little too simplistic.

[travellight]

Back when I did it for money, I found it to be something I wouldn't have chosen to do. I did it because I was being paid to entertain and simultaneously teach the children.

I assume you're not being paid for your efforts.

[heathrow]

I'm being paid indirectly. I get food, shelter, and that warm fuzzy feeling that comes with "I didn't kill them today, and hopefully they won't kill anyone when they are older."

Seriously, I do it because I love them, and it's the right choice for our family. The things I was good doing out in the work force required more hours away from the family than would have been good for one child, much less two. When Amelia was a wee baby, I was regularly working 60-80 hours a week, and I was always on-call to work. Computer security and networking is not the most family friendly occupation at this time.

[travellight]

Well, I meant in cash.

Lest I sound cold about the playing of games and watching of the movies, I wouldn't have been with the George kids at all did I not love them, and because I do love them, pretty much anything I did and do with them is fun to me, including sitting on the bleachers watching them swing at a ball on a tee.

For the children I love, I will do almost anything just to get to be with them.

[eloren]

I'm glad to know the 20 or so minutes I spend pushing "Snooze" and ignoring the alarm in the mornings are Leisure time!

[heathrow]

I know you're living it up at 6:15 AM!

[h_postmortemus]

No, I wouldn't consider much of what he classified as leisure time truly leisure time. But then I define such times as "Doing what I want when I want to". Frequently, not always, this also boils down to "time to myself".

He seems to come from the mindset that if you aren't at work at a job, or asleep, it's leisure. Or if you are "at rest" it's leisure. Well I spend lots of time waiting at doctor offices but that's not something I *want* to do.

However, I do feel there's a lot of good points about managing your time, how you view time, etc... For some people, spending time with your kids is more leisurely than for others (i.e. grandparents versus parents).