There are two groups I'd like to form in Auckland. The first is a choir for people like me who cannot sing a note in tune, but love nothing more than belting out a hearty anthem. The second will be based on a love of idleness and abhorrence for the new "busy" movement.
It's become this colossal competition - just how busy we are and how many activities we can pack into one day. Gone are the days when you multi-tasked by breastfeeding the baby while stirring the casserole and dictating some pressing correspondence.
Now you'd have skyping to China and speed texting thrown in as well. And the casserole would probably be in a trendy slow-cooker so you could get Melissa to ballet and Max to soccer before burping the baby. I believe all this frenetic activity is really detrimental to our lifestyle and definitely to our children.
A very experienced child-minder confided in me recently about how she hated Mondays. Most of us are not crazy about Monday mornings, but she loathed them because all her tiny charges were so exhausted after a mega "busy" weekend: "Some parents who have their children in care all week feel compelled to compensate on the weekend and the poor little blighters are dragged around every fun activity in town - only it's all too much and they're exhausted at the start of the week."
"Frenetic" is a word you hear often now and people hold it up like some badge of honour. I am not busy. I have some weeks when my work keeps me at my computer for long hours, but most of the time I'm not busy. I have a husband who operates well on about four hours sleep a night and is always extraordinarily busy. He has three mobile phones and is constantly skyping exotic places - loudly at ungodly hours of the night. So I'm not guilty about my "business hours" as I feel it brings balance to our family dynamics.