A large group of children born in recent years have taken over the mantle of stealing time from the generation that preceded them. This collective have managed to reduce the number of hours available to their parents in the day by at least half, in some cases stealing so much time that there is none left over for basic personal needs. As in previous years, these time stealing bandits are mostly taking from their Mothers, although many Fathers have also been affected. This week, Supermums – a collective of women who in between raising their children, also manage to retain some semblance of professional and personal lives, write interesting and informative parenting blogs, feed an unhealthy social media addiction and put the world to rights in their ‘spare’ time – made some progress in the fight to steal some of their time back. Having been the among the previous generation of time stealers, this group have more weapons in their armoury than ever before. These include: online shopping, online banking, smartphone apps – for email accounts, WordPress blogs, social networking sites such Twitter and Facebook, and even YouTube, as well as various websites that will compare prices for everything from car insurance to shoes across a number of websites so that you don’t have to trawl loads of shops to find the best value. With these time-saving devices, the Supermums are managing to find little pockets of time for themselves. Mushroom’s Mum says ‘My favourite timesaver has to be the WordPress app – it means I can draft blog posts while I commute, so that I can spend quality time with my son when I get home, and then with my husband once the baby’s asleep.’ Some progress has been made but the fight is ongoing and the babies still have the advantage.
This short story is my entry to BritMums #BGSaveTime Competition, sponsored by British Gas, who have launched a new smartphone app to help save time when it comes to household bills. If you’re on twitter, you can read other entries by searching for the hastag #BGSaveTime
