21 years looking after others, women it's time to Be
Selfish and get some selfish time
16th June: Research launched today has revealed that the average
British woman spends more than 21 years of her life running around
after others, but only three years of her adult life on getting
some valuable selfish time.
Running errands, looking after the house and shopping for the
family takes up almost four months of every year, a total of 19
years, three months, and four days in the average woman's
lifetime.
On top of that, looking after children and the daily ferrying to
after school clubs and swimming lessons accounts for a further one
year, nine months and eight days. 11 hours are spent cooking for
the family each week, equating to almost four years of a woman's
life spent up close and personal to her cooker.
Washing the family's clothes takes four hours a week - or a year
and six months in a lifetime - while ironing takes up another two
hours and 15 minutes, which is almost a full year bonding
one-on-one with the ironing board.
Women spend five hours tidying up the house, while another two
hours and 52 minutes are spent washing up. Even looking after the
household pets is taking just over two hours of a woman's time each
week, which equates to a whole year tending to Fido.
In total, washing clothes, doing the dishes, cleaning and tidying
the house, and looking after household pets account for a whopping
11 years in a woman's lifetime.
Shopping, reputably a woman's favourite past time (only when shoes
are involved), when broken down, is actually a year and a half of
family grocery shopping down at the local supermarket.
Vesuvius Syndrome
All this running around after the family, cooking, cleaning,
walking the dog and grocery shopping is resulting in more and more
tired, stressed-out women. 63% are reporting regular 'boiling over'
outbursts, with men taking the worst of it, with 50% of women
admitting to yelling at their partners. A quarter of women report a
'boiling over' episode every week, and a further 10% every
day.
Jenni Trent Hughes
Psychologist Jenni Trent Hughes has coined these mini eruptions as
'Vesuvial moments', where everyday stresses build up and up to the
point where it all boils over, often at those in the closest
vicinity. Too many of these outbursts and the woman in question can
be diagnosed with 'Vesuvius Syndrome'
So what can be done to help these Vesuvius sufferers? Jenni
explains, "The answer is simply to Be-Selfish and take some time
out, after 21 years of running around after the family, pets,
supermarket and the house, women have earnt it. If you're not
taking care of yourself then how can you properly take care of
anyone else? If you're ratty or short-tempered; tired or at your
wits end how can you possibly be the best you can be for your
partner, children, family and last but definitely not least -
yourself."
Radox is hoping their new campaign 'Be-Selfish' will galvanise
women to take some time for themselves, and have a happy hour.
Margaret Jobling, Marketing Director for Radox explains: "For our
audience of busy women time is the one commodity they have least
and value the most. We want the Be-Selfish campaign to help
women understand that selfishness is no longer about putting
yourself before others, it's about doing something you like
to do, making yourself happy and putting everything back in
perspective. In the long run this will benefit not just you but
your family and friends around you too."
Jenni Trent Hughes comments "In the 21st century a little bit of
selfishness comes in handy. There are many words nowadays that
carry a slightly different meaning than they used to. Wife, Mother,
Partner, Woman - all these have slightly different
connotations than they might have even a generation ago. It's the
same with selfishness. If doesn't only mean 'at the expense of
others' like it used to. Nowadays a little bit of 'tending to
yourself' guarantees a stronger, calmer, more effective and
efficient you; and surely that is better for all concerned?
Jenni concludes, "A very wise woman once said "Love yourself
first and everything else falls into line. You really have to love
yourself to get anything done in this world." If only more of us
would take this on board."
Notes to Editors:
2,000 women were polled by One Poll
RESEARCH BREAKDOWN
In a week (in hours) In a lifetime (in years) In a lifetime
(days)
Cooking 10.57 4 1442.81
Looking after children 12.95 1.4 505.05
Ironing 2.33 0.9 318.05
School run 1.82 0.2 70.98
Tidying the house 5.02 1.9 685.23
Looking after pets 2.07 0.8 282.56
Laundry 3.99 1.5 544.64
Doing the dishes 2.86 1 390.39
Dusting 1 0.4 136.5
Vacuuming 1.23 0.46 167.90
Food shopping 2.68 1 365.82
Other family shopping 1.67 0.6 227.96
Ferrying children around 1.81 0.2 70.59
Working 18.08 6.8 2467.92
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