How did you go about adjusting your day / daily schedule, as you no longer had children to look after or take care of?
Aug 20, 2023 by Anthony Damaschino
Let’s start with a statistic. According to OurWorldInData.org’s 2012 global survey, the average college-educated mother in the US spent 150 minutes with their child a day (20% lower if not college-educated). The average father spent 83 minutes (20% lower if not college-educated). We could analyze single parents, stay-at-home parents, and all variations of careers and lifestyles along with the age range of the child. But this answer would be too long, and the average would stay the same. The point of the above statistics is that a mother and a father in the US will, on average, have 1 to 2 ½ hours of new ‘childless time’ a day. My plan was not to fill that time with my children on Facetime.
For me, routines changed. For example, dinner with teens throughout high school seemed fluid; timing and what we ate depended on Water Polo practice, homework, and social calendars. Dinner without children was still fluid but no longer dependent on a child. The same is true for morning routines, weeknights, and weekends. There is a much deeper dive into this topic in the book, but as my “Family First’ lifestyle focus and routines ended, I shifted to a Couple-First lifestyle with additional time to focus on myself.
