How Much Free Time Do Parents Have Each Day?

A new British survey (via Motherlode) took a look at parents and how their time is spent each day. It’s not really surprising. Here’s what the Co-operative supermarket chains survey found to be an average parent’s day:

Get up: 6:42am
Get ready (shower, dress, coffee): 55 minutes
Get children ready: 47 minutes
Commute to work: 52 minutes
Working day: 7 hours
Pick children up: 33 minutes
Makes / eat dinner: 46 minutes
Children’s play and bedtime: 1 hour 9 minutes
Household chores: 1 hour 13 minutes
Work from home: 1 hour 12 minutes
Go to bed: 10:45pm
Spare time = 1 hour 30 minutes a day

So that’s 90 minutes of free time, folks.

But take a closer look. There’s only 7 hours listed for “working day” listed. Then there’s the hour-plus of “work from home.” Here in the States, most of us are working 8-hour days and still checking work email at home.

Subtract that extra hour, and you’re left with a mere 30 minutes of this so-called “free time.”

The problem in my life (and I suspect in yours too) is that the time I get alone or with my husband sans kiddos doesn’t happen until after very long day of work outside the home, dinner prep, bath time and bedtime.

“Free time” doesn’t exist for me. It’s more like recovery time. And half an hour just isn’t enough. I find myself staying up later and later just to get a little more time to myself, when honestly I should just get more shut-eye.

What about you? How much “free time” do you have on an average day? What do you do with it?