Parents, how much free time do you have

[Anonymous]

And how much do you work?

[Anonymous]

it's so hard, you have no free time when they're little. When they're older, it gets better.

[Anonymous]

I’m a teacher so I work from 8:30-4 pm. I technically have “free” time after that but it usually involves making dinner, cleaning up, checking on the kids school work, setting up ally school stuff for the next day, and of course since we all live and work at home now I am never alone for one second of it. My extroverted 6 yo feels like the parrot that sits on a pirates shoulder and just is always there narrating stuff. I love her to death but I swear.

[Anonymous]

I have from 8 pm bedtime until I go to bed. Dh gets up early so he has 5-7 when they get up. Weekends are all hands on deck mostly. Before covid the oldest went to grandmas for the weekend every couple weeks.
If dh has something going on or I do on the weekend the other watches the kids. And they still nap so 2-4 on Saturday and Sunday is free but someone has to stay home with them.

[Anonymous]

Kids are now teens. Aside from cooking dinner, I am free from when I get home from work at 5 pm until I go to bed around 10ish (pre-pandemic, i used to have sports carpool 1-2 nights/week.) Weekends are a mix of responsibilities (errands/yardwork/etc) and free time.

I definitely have far more free time now that my kids are older.

[Anonymous]

Define “free time”. Is this time when I’m 100% alone? Time when my kids are momentarily occupied and I can hope for a few minutes to myself (if I’m not needed for some “emergency” or another)?

[Anonymous]

Currently none. I wake up at 8, start working. Work until 5pm when my kids come home from daycare (dh takes them). We eat dinner and hang out together. After they go to sleep at 8pm, I log on for another 3 hours of work. I dream about reading a book, but zero time...

Pre-pandemic I had several hours a day to myself.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Currently none. I wake up at 8, start working. Work until 5pm when my kids come home from daycare (dh takes them). We eat dinner and hang out together. After they go to sleep at 8pm, I log on for another 3 hours of work. I dream about reading a book, but zero time...

Pre-pandemic I had several hours a day to myself.

I don't understand...how you lost your free time if your kids are in daycare.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Currently none. I wake up at 8, start working. Work until 5pm when my kids come home from daycare (dh takes them). We eat dinner and hang out together. After they go to sleep at 8pm, I log on for another 3 hours of work. I dream about reading a book, but zero time...

Pre-pandemic I had several hours a day to myself.

I don't understand...how you lost your free time if your kids are in daycare.

Sounds like her job got busier.

[Anonymous]

SAHM with a 4 and 20 month old. Free time from 7:30pm to 9pm and while they nap, so maybe an hour a day while they're both asleep. I use that free time to fold laundry or clean up. My life is pretty sad right now haha.

[Anonymous]

My "free time" used to be my commute. It was my time to listen to podcasts, audiobooks, music, etc. I would meet up with girlfriends maybe once every other month.

Now, my "free time" is after kids are in bed and house is picked up. Or early in the morning before they wake.

[Anonymous]

As much as I want. I have one almost 5 year old and both DH and I work from home now. She's in a nanny share doing distance learning and we can take turns with her when one of us wants to do something solo on the evenings or weekends.

[Anonymous]

I get between 3-7 hours of free time a week. Always at least 3 hours because those are my runs. I run almost every day, even if it's just a very quick couple miles.

The rest of the time is variable because while I always get time by myself during the week, it is often sent working and thus is not free. My work is pretty variable. Some weeks I probably only do 15 hours of true work (beyond the administrative stuff I always have to do). But I also have many 40-50 hours work weeks. Also, I should note that I run my own business and bill my time, so when I say I worked 40 hours, I mean I billed a client for 40 hours of actual work.

My husband has a regular 9-5 job and he never does more than 25 hours of real work each week, but it's much more regular and his work involves way more meetings than mine does. I would estimate he gets closer to 10-15 hours of free time per week. Usually in the form of several 2-hour bike rides plus his down time during the workday when I am doing childcare.

[Anonymous]

I have four ages 7 and under including an infant. This summer I had some free time because we had a nanny about 5 hours a day M-F and when the 2 youngest were napping I got to work on some DYI projects. Now with no nanny I have very little free time because after they are in bed at 7:30 or so I do various chores. Sometimes I will watch Netflix for an hour before going to bed but that's about it. But with four little ones I can't expect a lot of free time.

[Anonymous]

We have a 4yo and a 4mo. They are in daycare while we work. DH does drop off, and I handle pick up. No free time. Whichever one of us isn't managing the kids beforr and after daycare/work stays busy doing tasks around the house. I go to bed as soon as older DD is down for the night, as I am prioritizing my sleep these days.
On weekends, DH will occasionally take older DD for an hour or two, so I am left with only the baby.
Pre-pandemoc, we had frequent visits from grandparents, plus an occasional late-night babysitter.