How I Actually Spend My Time As a Part Time Working Mum

[@BS-xs7jb]

I haven't finished the video but one curious thing is that you (correctly!) classified housework and parenting as unpaid LABOR, yet your gut reaction is "I don't work enough", completely discounting that you spend about half of your time working, just the majority of it doing unpaid labor. I'm not saying I wouldn't have reacted the same even knowing rationally that unpaid labor is still labor, I just thought it was interesting.

[@morehannah]

omg yes!! that's how deep rooted this belief is!!!!

[@Judymontel]

Yes - and I didn't even catch that. Thank you (VERY much) for pointing that out.

[@TurpeinenRebecca]

Raising good human beings is incredibly productive to society ☺️

[@Applepopess]

My thoughts exactly!!

[@meddymadz]

For someone who ‘doesn’t know what they’re doing’ those are some bloody gorgeous spreadsheets. Give yourself more credit!! 💫

[@morehannah]

eeee thanks ☺️

[@karennaftel]

It would be interesting for this to be one of your annual videos where you track your time, maybe for a shorter span, but then you can compare changes and also implement other questions people had

[@morehannah]

Ooooh interesting thought!!

[@deenerwiener816]

So out of curiosity i just did the math and working 40 hours a week is only 23% of the hours in a week and 32 hours (4 out of 5 days) is 19%. I honestly didnt think it would be that low but it adds a lot of perspective the 15% that you tracked. Its funny how your intitial guess (which i thought was totally reasonable) was actually higher than what it would be for someone who works "full time".

[@kathrynl.rochon9655]

I did this calculation too and was so surprised!

[@jasmint3207]

Yeah hours put it in perspective!

[@jasmint3207]

Also another way to put it would be use the waking hours as 100 % and look at percentages of that.

[@eliontheinternet3298]

I don’t have kids and I have a typical 40 hour/week desk job with a shortish commute. I feel like my work-life balance was SO much better when I was working 4 days a week, 10 hour shifts than now when I’m working 5 days a week, 8 hour shifts. I feel like the two hours in the morning/evening kind of waste away anyway, and in exchange, I got a WHOLE EXTRA DAY. I could do appointments on a weekday, and I still had two whole weekend days - usually one day for doing something fun, and one day to just veg out at home. I’m not sure if it’s true for you too, but it could be part of why you feel you work so much and yet not enough. If you never truly put it down and pick it up, you are essentially always working a teensy bit, always carrying that extra bit of stress, and you may feel like that extra time of minimal (but still present) effort isn’t paying off. The days that I stay signed into my work accounts or even LinkedIn are the days that I feel most drained. Even if I’m not actually checking them! Just the notification or muscle memory to check it is enough to not let me truly relax.

[@Anna133199]

Super interesting. Sounds like a very well balanced life. Not something to feel guilty about, but something for other people to aspire to. (Also: unpaid labour = labour. Never forget that!)

[@gemgh420]

I will refer to sleep as "body admin" from now on

[@thequeerrunner5745]

'I'm sorry - I can't come out, I am too busy doing body admin'

[@morehannah]

Haha you’re welcome

[@cocochipcookie]

I LOVED this video. The analysis of the ‘life’ data you captured is so valuable to share. Will also consider doing this myself personally I’m sure we can all find some validation in it. Would LOVE to see this again as life changes would be so interesting to compare directly. Thank you for sharing Hannah!

[@Applepopess]

Parenting is not just unpaid labour, it is also absolutely contributing to society (as another user pointed out). Please give yourself credit for raising a tiny human (and, if we must think in those terms, a future tax payer). You're contributing to society with so much more than money and job time.

[@jgroenevelt424]

I’m really excited that you’ve managed to get your work down so low, it seems to match your goals for this year.

[@leggyegg2890]

So glad I watched the ad for once! I’ve tried hello fresh before, loved it, but had to cancel due to cost so lots of deals won’t work for me since I’m not a new customer. My disabilities (all of them!!) are flaring up right now and my car broke down, oh my god I’m so happy I can get this offer and not have to worry about ubering to the shops and planning meals and all of that nonsense!!! THANK YOU!!!!!!!!

[@althyastar]

Aww this is so wholesome 🥰 hope you can have a break from your flare-ups soon!

[@leggyegg2890]

@@althyastar Thank you!! I appreciate that 💕

[@jennibuxton9821]

Just a quick comment on your socialising. You said you didn't see your friends most of the time but also any time you saw your friends with Rowan it would have been tracked as parenting. So you're probably seeing your friends more often it's just that they aren't your complete priority in the moment 😊

[@morehannah]

Yes good point!! I definitely FEEL the difference though between socialising when I’ve got Rowan (especially if Dan isn’t around) and socialising when I’m child free. Socialising with Rowan around honestly I can’t relax and I feel like I miss out on most of the conversations happening, it’s such a different experience !!

[@Judymontel]

@@morehannah Sigh, yes, been there.

[@tinnie75]

I feel like a lot of the data was skewed because of the parenting thing and not being able to track it as two things at once. Because as Hannah said, if Rowan needed her during that time, he'd take priority. But then if he didn't actively need her, she was able to get a lot of stuff done that wasn't Rowan focused. Maybe socializing isn't the same (as I see in the comment by Hannah here) but like housework still gets done, even if more slowly because of Rowan being around and needing attention.

[@ellereadsalottt]

I have an app I use to track my hours on things called Life Cycle so I know my breakdown (as a night shift worker on 4 nights a week): Body admin: 40% Paid labour: 23% Unpaid labour: 10.5% (don’t have a child and fully share chores with my partner) Leisure: 26.5%

[@Lucy-z8h5g]

I love that you're in a season of life that you're enjoying so much and wouldn't swap in a hurry!

[@mokimon5079]

I love love love this data! Everyone's life is so different and it's so interesting to understand a little bit more how someone's day to day life works, like, genuinely what order you do things in. As someone who wants kids but doesn't have them yet, and as an income earner with a long commute, I feel our experiences are totally different, but so valuable!

[@perplex777]

Really fascinating stuff. I wonder if you’re instinctive reaction might have been different / tempered if the first pie chart you saw was filtered to exclude sleep. Because a chart showing only how you spent your waking hours might have been more “acceptable” to your brain? Maybe not but it’s one of those elements of statistics that presentation is critical (hence you always get analysis of graphs on election leaflets lol). We (rightly) spend a lot of our time asleep - we know this but rarely see it visually presented. Taking that out of the equation may have made you feel there was less “waste” there maybe?

[@morehannah]

Ooooh a good point! Maybe!!

[@catherinemarsden4511]

Ahh i find this totally interesting! We are a matched salary household and I am struggling with the thought of having a baby because I know the parenting split or Career sacrifices would fall to me or as I work shift work me and my husband would never see each other!! Such a tricky dynamic to work around! Live your content ❤️

[@morehannah]

Such a tricky dynamic and there’s no right answer other than constant communication haha!

[@mokimon5079]

A note on perceiving paid word as a larger chunk of your time, even if the data doesn't support it - I think it's twofold. One, like you said, you are using more brain energy at paid work, which means more of your finite daily energy is put into it; those hours are more potent and saturated. And two, paid work has a tangible return (money, being the main one). It's not that unpaid labour gives us nothing back or is worthless, far from true! It's just that doing the washing, again, is less rewarding. And you get absolutely nothing out of it, except clean clothes. Until the next load, of course.

[@Jodie_May92]

I really felt the drop in the body admin on weekdays. As a work from home mum with a partner who has a commute, it’s often either shower with the toddler or don’t shower 😅

[@jennr8083]

More difficult to track but I would love to see someone who works full time do proper tracking of their day as well. Not just flat 8 hours working but actually tracking how much time they might participate in "time theft" while being paid on the job, and then compare how many hours of paid labour vs paid not working time vs unpaid labour. I would volunteer but I don't want that data to get in the hands of my employer 😆 It would be nteresting to see if your more focused, shorter work hours is actually comparable to someone getting paid full time.

[@morehannah]

hahaha yeah would be interesting to know! but also often that non working paid time is thinking time!

[@laulau194]

I'm curious to track it for myself but my current job doesn't really lend itself to thenotion of 'time theft' since I'm fully customer facing, I definitely have down time at work but if there's no one to serve I have nothing to do even if I want to be doing something.

[@leighthomp]

So I use a pomodoro timer for work tasks as someone who works 7.5 hours per day. On a good day I’ll do 7-8 25 minute segments, roughly 3-3.5 hours of solid work for that 7.5 hours, but it’s often much lower 😅 I’ve been struggling with motivation and not enjoying the work I do, so it can be difficult for me to get started sometimes, but I’m trying to have a better mindset.

[@jennr8083]

@@morehannah It's interesting that you frame it that way as I have a very thinking heavy job and would always consider my thinking time as working time, whereas I also work remotely so I am also doing laundry, online shopping, leaving comments on newly released youtube videos 😆 etc on top of working during my contracted 8.5 hour workday.

[@jennr8083]

@@leighthomp I absolutely adore my job and although I am not tracking my work I do estimate I only really get 3-5 hours of good working time in per day anyway (depending on the day and the project I am working on). I think studies say the same so probably more a maximum human mental capacity thing as well.

[@queenofdramatech]

I am a children's librarian and I am getting more like you, detail oriented with the notion app. Gotta try this one!

[@Eleeyore]

Aaaah I love your data heavy videos! So interesting! So much fun! Big fan of data

[@michelleheegaard]

I teach IT to elderly people and I recently told my boss that I will only do 20h a week on education and then my fridays are dedicated to some SoMe work for the company. So on average, my work week is around 27h - compared to the standard in Denmark being 37h. I 100p have to deal with the guilt and shame of not being able to "perform better" than my 27h a week. But it was a very concious decision I had to make for my sanity and overall health. I've been pushing myself far too hard the first 28years of my life and it's time to prioritize myself and my happiness. Plus, I recently inherited some money which I used to buy an old farm that I am renovating. Which means a lot of my energy is going towards that proect and I have less energy to focus on my "career". It also means I have no rent and can afford to work less... Im assuming this will change in the future but for right now, I like spending less time on "paid labour" and more time on "unpaid labour", which in my case is taking care of my pets and renovating the property.

[@laurenschenck5355]

Incredible data Hannah love it 📖❤️🖤🖤❤️🤎🤎🎃🎃👻👻👻🍃👻🍂🍂🍂🍂👻👻🍃🍃👻🖤🖤🖤❤️❤️🍃👻❤️🖤🎃🤎🤎🤎🖤🖤❤️👻🍂🍂🍂👻👻

[@notlikewater]

This video was so interesting, thank you for sharing! I was particularly interested by the question of how does the data compare to how it *Feels* you're spending your time. That's been on my mind a lot! I recently started my PhD and also got an internship, so I would be very curious to see how my work and school time compare to my free time (socializing, hanging out with my husband, and me time). It would be especially illuminating since my uni's grad worker's are on month 7 of striking for a better contract that values our time and labor more effectively, and to be able to have data on exactly how much we add to our uni's community!

[@morehannah]

Yes it was such a good question because how we experience our time spent is so subjective!

[@evaostrokljun2549]

Thank you for this video.

[@toffeefuchs]

This is so interesting. I love data like that and I love that you share it with us and the discussions it starts in the comments. 😊 That said, your data also gives me assurance in my personal decision that I probably don't want childen. I recently talked to a friend about it, who is getting married next year and very much getting ready to be a mother in the next few years and very excited for that season of life. I on the other hand, cannot imagine dedicating that much of my time to any single activity (or category of activities since parenting is of course varied). Of course parents generally like doing it and love their children but I think that's just not for me and I'd much rather have more time for friends and hobbies. Writing that makes me feel slightly selfish... probably because society tells us it is... But having the numbers and seeing how much of your time is spent parenting just reaffirms my choice a lot and makes me more confident that this is not the life I see for myself. I love kids and I'm excited to be a part of my friends' support system when they become parents but being a parent is a full-time job and I'm more of a multiple side-hussle kind of person 😄

[@thetheatricallinguist]

No insight but it has inspired me to track my time for the next 30 days. As a freelancer with chronic health issues, I never feel like i'm doing enough work or housework so it would be interesting to see if it's as bad as I feel like it is.

[@ParisGappmayr]

You've inspired me to try this myself. Another fantastic video as always!

[@mollyhoyer3356]

as always, love the video! inspired me to try this for a few weeks sometime soon!

[@GunmaGirl]

Will definitely be checking this app as a part-time working mom of a toddler.

[@katharinahuang3941]

I love your top today! 💖 Also, yeah, in a similar situation (but no kids) where I completely restructured my life to do less time in paid labor and end up feeling I'm not working enough 🤷‍♀️🤷‍♀️

[@16ilovevampires]

As a fellow mum, I would love some more body admin. xD

[@phyllispawa5793]

I just did some very quick math and in a seven day week if someone worked a full time forty hour a week job that would not 23.8%. Resist the guilt, if it's working for you and your family, then it's right.

[@tinysealooter]

So interesting 🤔 as a stay at home mom to a 2.5 year old with no day care or consistent grandparents help. My data would definitely make me feel weird. Good to know how much i could make in a year!

[@morehannah]

You could make even more !!!

[@lenausesyoutube]

I think my data would be something like this: 40% sleep and bodily admin 30% paid work, work break and commute 30% me time and a little unpaid labour On a workday it's 52% work and 8% me time tho. Not happy about that.

[@elieska]

Wait... what confuses me is the work time prediction. Let me take you along the maths (I was too curious to not do some maths haha). You guessed 25% of your time would be paid labour. So there are 7 *24= 168 hours in a week. 0,25*168=42 hours. How did you suddenly think you were a part-time worker but making full-time hours haha? 0,15*168=25 hours, which is what you've mentioned before right, around 24? 4 days of effectively 6 hours of work between childcare runs? I'm impressed that you get to an average of 24 hours exactly. Respect for being self employed and working from home and have set work times so well.

[@morehannah]

Haha if I had done this maths I would’ve realised very quickly how absurd my prediction was !! I guess it was more how it FELT for me. Maybe would be closer to. 25% of my awake time!

[@Applepopess]

That was so interesting!

[@rachelmb417]

I am about to quit my 9-5 (I mean more 10-8 but you know what I mean) and actually I think time tracking the initial weeks or maybe waiting a few weeks and then after that of my like freelancing/vibing/writing/running around and having a gap year era would maybe be very interesting. So good to know about now then cause I might do this.

[@morehannah]

Oooh good luck in your big transition!!

[@rachelmb417]

@@morehannah thank you!!

[@everythingbylau]

I’m currently unable to work due to disabilities and I’ve always wanted to track just how much time I spent on healthcare, because I genuinely feel like it’s a fulltime job!! I might try out the app and see what comes out :) also I was wondering, if Dan was the WFH freelancer and you had the office job, how different would your time have looked? do you think it would be a completely equal reversal or not?

[@morehannah]

in theory it would be a reversal!! and omg yeah navigating healthcare is definitely a full time job!!

[@Judymontel]

About that comment towards the end of how focused you are when you are working and how it "feels" like you are working more than the time you actually are - I think that is a very astute observation. I'm a grandmother now, and I am shocked anew every time I'm with my grandchildren how immensely DISTRACTING they are. I guess I forgot. Parenting is wildly unfocused, distracting and full of multi-tasking. And draining. Another comment about what your unpaid labor hours would earn you if you were paid minimum wage - I've always thought about that as the amount of money I was saving our household, and often more if we wanted more specialized or higher quality work. You are currently doing at LEAST 33K a year of work to support your family. Thank you for the tracking and analyzing. It's fascinating and much more valuable than I thought it would be (not being a spreadsheet person... 🙂)

[@alissamorris4494]

I wonder what the percentages would look like if you only looked at waking hours not sleeping hours. You might of had a different reaction to your working hours as a percentage.

[@lenausesyoutube]

I have an idea why you feel like you do more paid labour than tha data suggests. If you take sleep out of the equation, you spend a huge chunk of your conscious time on paid labour. Like it may only be 15% of your time but it's about 25% of the time when you're awake.

[@morehannah]

Solid theory!

[@elleminnowpee]

I am so interested to track my time now. I don't have any kids, so I imagine my "me time" will be significantly higher. I think I would also want to split my "me time" into more categories like reading, watching youtube, and mindless scrolling.

[@morehannah]

There are so many possibilities of sub categories I wanted to keep it as simple as possible but yes would be interesting to know the difference in me time for sure!

[@eddiecarson584]

I'd be so intrigued to see an overview of Dan's similar data or estimates of what that would look like. I'm very tempted to do a similar experiment with my partner to get a more objective account of the labour time totals.

[@sunsets.starlight]

I find this such an interesting concept. I work 5 hours a week and the rest of the time I'm mumming so mine would be almost entirely parenting or sleep 😂

[@Mariajustmary]

This was very intersting, very insightful. With the other video about time tracking I didn't feel like tracking my time, but with this one it looks way easier than the first video. I want to time track now! haha I'm be really curious to see how big the chunck of body admin is having cronic pain and being autistic, thus needing a lot of down time.

[@cariiinen]

Love the data

[@bennyjecker]

Great video idea!! ❤

[@c.morland]

Thanks

[@Hannah-wh3vo]

This is so interesting! Look at all that work you're doing for free! Only further compounds my belief that we need some kind of universal basic income because capitalism does not and will not EVER value the labour of parenting, caring, maintaining a home, and so on. I'm disabled and on benefits and really hate the rhetoric around employment in the UK. Politicians seem to think that finding paid work as a disabled or chronically ill person is simply a matter of toughening up and it makes me feel so much shame about how I spend my time. I would guess that the majority of my time is spent on body admin. From the outside it probably looks leisure time. And every day I get to wake up and read about able-bodied plonkers like Reeves and Badenoch who thinks that the reason there are so many disabled and mentally ill people out of work is because we get TOO MUCH help and accommodation, and not because of years of public spending cuts, inequality, and discrimination. So much talk about cutting welfare system spending and zero conversation about WHY disabled people struggle so much to access and stay in work, and what we could try and do to fix it. It's almost as though the lens of capitalism automatically dehumanises and shames disabled and other non-working people. It sucks, but it was good to hear someone else talk about the shame of not working/not working enough.

[@morehannah]

💯💯💯

[@irisiemenschot9791]

Hi! Really liked the video and interesting to look into the life of others hahah. Making the categories and how parenting is kind in the mix of all of them is hard. In terms of the paid vs unpaid work or the friends seeing etc, it might also be usefull to take out all of the time sleeping? So what percentage of waking hours are you working? Because I feel like that ends up hiiiiigj

[@maisacietto5082]

This was so interesting, even though im a student and don’t relate to much hahah

[@NataliaDryganets]

I think, you also didn't calculate carefully what means "25%" of the time for the paid labour. As you count 24/7, that would be actually 42 hours a week, which is more than a full time job for 5 days a week! 15% is roughly 26 hours a week, and if you work only 4 days a week, then it's about 25% of your time on your working days. So I guess your predictions were based on how you feel about amount of time during those workdays, and not on your whole week. No reason to feel shame. I think, it's brilliant, that you manage to have so much working time in these 4 days a week, these are almost fulltime working days.

[@spriddlez]

I'm sad you saw how low your paid labour time was and thought it needed to be bigger. My first thought when I saw that is that we all probably see our "paid labour" time as bigger than it is? That's my theory anyway

[@joillu]

Such an interesting video, thanks for sharing your data and thoughts ❤ I also work part time (20 h per week) have a 4 year old and have a similar division of labour to you and Dan. And my husband is a teacher here in Denmark and fortunately reasonably well paid, which takes away pressurw on me to work more hours. I love working less, but I totslly relate to your feeling of working more. It's not the hours, but all the thoughts/worries/planning and emotions going into work. And I dont think those are significantly less demanding, just because someone works parttime. If that makes sense. i work in an office / at home, so even though I'm only there 2 days a week I still have 1 boss to deal with and a commute + child pickup to figure out every week. Does this make sense? 😅🤔🤔🧡

[@joillu]

And by "working less" I meant paid work

[@morehannah]

Yes! Definitely makes sense!

[@emmabarnes609]

hey hannah!

[@selmar5161]

I’d love to see Dan’s equivalent!

[@uploadingjess]

I wonder if the tracking itself had any impact on the results. For me, that would take up quite some energy which might result in more 'me time/recovery time' than usual.

[@kristiedeaver]

Loved the experiment. Thanks for always giving every video your full dedication!

[@Ellenismyname]

I really love your videos 🩷

[@alissa6380]

I am curious to see where "life admin" stuff would fall with this categorization -- I assume doctor's appointments would be under "body admin" but what about things like bills and taxes, or even brainstorming renovation stuff? Some of that could probably go under "housework" and maybe other things get done during regular "paid labor", but it's strange to me to not have a specific category for it, since it's a pretty significant slice of the pie for me. I used to do a thing where I'd manually track my time at the end of the the day -- just rough approximations of what I feel like I'd done that day. At the beginning of each month I'd take a new piece of graph paper and outline my priorities for that month on the horizontal axis, and then watch the bars climb up at a rate of approximately one grid section per hour spent. Before making the graph, I'd also order the priorities by how much time I'd like to spend on each of them, so, ideally, by the end of the month the bars would start out high on the left and gradually get smaller. Of course, there were usually spikes and dips all over the place, but still, it was a helpful at-a-glance reminder of how well my actions were aligning with my intentions. Of course, you seem to have way fewer problems with discipline and are very organized to begin with, so you probably don't need anything like that, but maybe someone in the comments will benefit. I liked having it as part of my nighttime routine -- a moment to wind down, reflect, check-in with my priorities (without using an app, because we all know how opening up your phone can go), and color in some blocks with my pretty pens. Actually, maybe this will motivate me to restart that; I fell off the wagon when life got super busy and never started it back up again once it calmed down.

[@morehannah]

The things you describe as life admin would’ve been split into body admin/housework for me!

[@alisonpritchard406]

Anyone know of a similar app for Android? At rhe moment I'm too scared to do it at home, but we're about to trial a 4 day week at work and it would be super useful to see what our time drains are!

[@endereverdeen]

not yet finished so maybe this is answered but did body admin include things such as time spent on grooming such as doing your hair / makeup or any hair removal? i’d be so interested to know how much time i spend on doing my hair given getting braids done in a salon can take 3-5 hours depending on the style!

[@morehannah]

Yeah I tracked any stuff like that as body admin too!

[@trinesrensen6821]

I am so curious if sex (solo as well as partnered) would be body admin or leisure 😅

[@morehannah]

Haha usually tracked as me time or Dan time 😅😅

[@trinesrensen6821]

The fact that you even reply to this comment simply encapsulates why you’re my favorite KZbinr. You manage to treat what others call taboo topics (like sex, poop, and money lol) as something completely normal and absolutely correct as something we all encounter every day. I just love how you neither make it into a 'oh look, I’m ONLY talking about this as a statement' nor do you hide it away. Looking at the KZbin landscape, I think you’re part of a ‘normal people’ revolution, and it’s fantastic-especially because you’re doing it in a genre outside of storytime, humor, etc., in a way where you, through your personality and content, continually help reinforce the narrative that it’s totally okay to casually talk about these aspects of life. Hurrah. This is how progress happens

[@milikoshki]

Sorry I'm an IT analyst so I'm just like.. why did you not keep things consistent across the board? like all commuting time will be rolled into the purpose of the commute, rather than commuting for daycare = parenting, while commuting for socializing = me time.

[@morehannah]

Because that’s not how my brain experiences those different commutes so felt right for them to be tracked differently

[@milikoshki]

ok, I misunderstood the purpose of this exercise as an objective view of time spent, rather than a subjective one.

[@robertlawsonjr.2501]

♥️♥️♥️♥️♥️♥️♥️

[@nikkirochelle3717]

Your minimum wage is 11.44?!?!? And I thought the US was bad..

[@hconf]

4 days a week and not full days… OF COURSE there is more leisure time

[@jadecollins7693]

Unpaid labour in terms of parenting is surely kind of the same as a hobby? I know that it's hard work, I'm not disputing that but it is a choice obviously and to me having children is a massive privilege, not everyone can obviously, but also not everyone can afford it. Parents are amazing and I know its super hard work and other 'me time' is important too, but there's a reason you're not paid for it lol, it's just for you. You're not really doing it to benefit anyone else. Idk, it just didn't fully sit right with me the implication they you're 'doing all of this unpaid labour' and maybe you 'should' be paid for it. Like it's a choice, just the same as what I spend my money and time on is a choice. Just my perspective, not trying to cause any hate! And I'm hearing to hear an alternate perspective 🙂