2meirl4meirl

Let's see. Earn a living, take care of yourself, take care of your household, and add in taking care of other people. That is only like four full time jobs.

This is because domestic labor, which allows for social reproduction, is unvalued and not compensated.

Now add to that

• dripping and picking up the kids from school
• dressing them up for school
• cooking dinner for them and coaching after them
• giving them a bath
• putting them to need and reading them a story
• ACTUALLY SPENDING TIME AND PLAY WITH THEM

How is that even possible? No wonder that people are having less kids

The trick is to not actually work for 8hrs, easier said than done of course, but if you find yourself in that position then take full advantage of it. They won’t bat an eye to replace you, so don’t bat an eye to do your own thing where possible.

As a parent of 2, I wish my daily routine was this simple!

Don’t get old. It’s worse.

Don't forget about your 30 minutes+ of being relaxed and mindful

Even my sims couldn't keep up

I shower once every 2-3 days depending on the weather and physical activity.
I'm Italian and we have bidets, so I can wash my ass and genitals there; face and, when necessary, armpits I can wash quickly in the sink.

It was almost manageable when I worked from home everyday. No chance now

Half of those aren't daily

I work, sleep, eat (but I don’t waist time cooking) and drop all the rest because neurodivergent burnout is real and I don’t want to go die from exhaustion .

Meal prep can help shift some of that burden as long as there is fridge/freezer space for some of the elements.

Break it out into 168 hours per week:

56 hours of sleep
45 hours of work (include the potential for working a bit longer each day)
5 hours of commuting to/from work
6 hours of exercise/gym
2 hours of grocery shopping
7 hours of cooking and other food prep
7 hours of eating
1 hour of laundry
2 hours of general cleaning around the house
2 hours of other general chores

That's 133 hours per week. You still have 35 hours for socializing, hobbies, other activities you enjoy, or just plain sitting around and relaxing (with a book, with TV, etc.) if you enjoy that. And some people can fit in part of those needs in terms of overlap: white collar jobs that don't mind if you buy something for yourself online during the day, restaurant jobs that cover a shift meal, physical jobs or commutes that reduce the amount of time you might need to get exercise outside of work, etc.

For me, I actually really enjoy cooking (and eating) so I probably spend more time on those than is strictly necessary, but it doesn't feel like work to me.

I'm probably lucky in that I spent some time working in restaurants that gave me a ton of kitchen skills (not just the actual ability to prep and cook delicious food quickly, but the sense of meal planning on a strict budget that reduces food waste), and makes me appreciate the regularity of a white collar job schedule that actually fits with circadian rhythms and the flow of the rest of society.

Kids make it harder, though. A lot of that 35 hours per week carved out gets totally eaten up with a second commute to daycare (5 hours), bedtime routines (7 hours), extracurricular weekend activities (5 hours), and extra cleaning (5 hours), a second load of laundry (1 hour), and extra chores (2 hours), leaving you with only 10 hours per week of hobbies/leisure.

At that point you've gotta find the time from somewhere. I personally dipped to 7 hours per ~~week~~ day of sleep around that time, dropped my gym attendance to around 3 hours per week, and started paying to outsource some of the cleaning (a weekly service) and cooking (more takeout/restaurants) and shopping (more grocery delivery).

But the magic, for me, was that my kids are really fun. They leave me with less time for other things but I love them and that part feels less like a chore. And they're a forcing function in that I have to be home when they're asleep 3-4 hours before my bedtime, when I don't have anything better to do than clean a bit, do a bit of meal prep, and watch a lot of TV with my spouse.

You don't have to do all of that every single day

It is impossible. You never get to be on top of everything. Since there is always shit that needs to be done. It is often called the productivity myth. More discipline or a better system won’t lead to less work and less stress. Since new things just keep coming.

You just need to accept that life is like this and that it’s completely impossible to forever finish your todos. So therefore you should just schedule down time and don’t feel guilty that you still need to finish things since it is a never ending stream of things to do anyway. Just prioritize the most important things.