Gender Equality
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How many hours do you work?
A report last week said working mums work around 15 hours a day. To test this view, Workingmums is conducting a short survey…
Working mums has decided, given recent media focus on the number of hours working mums actually do in a day, to conduct an unscientific survey to find out how many hours you put in on average in a week. Answer the following questions to work out your total:
-In an average week, how much time do you spend getting the kids up, dressed and out the door – taking into account complaints about sore tummies, clearing up overnight messes by pets, seeking out small lost toys which are required at the last minute to show the teacher etc?
-In an average week, how much time do you spend travelling/driving to and from school and other activities, taking into account roadworks and other potential traffic hazards?
-In an average week, how much time do you spend actually “working” ie that bit of your day when you are not with the children?
-In an average week, how much time do you spend buying food, presents for parties, material for Viking costumes, etc?
-In an average week, how much time do you spend attempting to clear a path through the house?
-In an average week, how much time do you spend cooking/burning the food and doing the washing?
-In an average week, how much time do you spend chatting to the children about their day/God and Santa/space and the Galaxy, etc, reading stories, playing in dens, doing makeovers, dealing with teenage tantrums etc?
-In an average week, how much time do you spend getting children to sleep [including bathtime routine]? Include in timings the hour you start talking about bedtime, the actual bedtime routine bit and the several hours that you spend telling them to go back to bed.
-In an average week, how much time do you spend organising who will cover assorted school events, associated guilt, how you will make up any lost work time, planning ahead for the holidays, worrying about holiday childcare etc?
-In an average week, how much time do you spend plotting some sort of escape?
-In an average week, how much time do you spend filling in forms, ringing NHS Direct, going to the GP, making costumes/cakes, doing parent stuff etc for schools?
-In an average week, how much time do you spend talking to/grunting at your partner?
-In an average week, how much time do you spend going up and down stairs?
-In an average week, how much time do you spend on pets?
-In an average week, how much time do you sleep without children on top of you or answering emergency calls in the night?
-In an average week, how much time does that actually leave, minus the time you actually do sleep, for yourself?
Scores:
25 hours or less a week – you are either very rich, lying or never see your kids.
35-55 hours a week – you must have a nanny or a partner who only works part-time and actually does his fair share of housework/forward planning/costume making.
55-75 hours a week – you’ve got a heavy week, but at least you must be getting some sleep and potentially a few hours for yourself a week.
75 hours + – you are on your knees and only kept going by caffeine and cake. On the bright side, you are probably quite fit from rushing around so much [despite the cake] and you probably have no time to look in the mirror so can live in a fantasy world where you look 10 years younger than you actually are and 20 years younger than you actually appear.
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