SINGAPORE: We live in an increasingly time-scarce world. As a working parent of two primary school children and a teen, I am starting to feel the brunt of this year, as everyone’s schedules sometimes have us running in all directions.
Even at the dining table – the spot where we meet and congregate before the day officially begins and when the day’s work ends – it is a daily tussle to pull everyone away from devices, books and homework, and to be fully present. Especially for myself, as a working mother.
Just last week, I took the children out on a “date” to a nearby café. I made everyone leave their devices and books behind and bring only themselves.
We had a nice time chatting about the latest things they were into, about friends in school and even about the war in Ukraine and how to make sense of it.
Although we do have such connecting moments at home, it struck me how sometimes a change in scenery can help attune our senses to new nuances.
I found myself being able to switch mode from the disciplinarian mum always lecturing the kids on their behaviour, to being curious and conversational.
Against the ever-increasing allure of the metaverse, it is perhaps not difficult to see why Eat With Your Family Day (EWYFD) was launched in 2003 by the Centre for Fathering (CFF).
Now held four times a year, on the last Friday of each school term, EWYFD seeks to encourage organisations to allow employees to leave work early at 5 pm to enjoy a meal at home with their families.
For busy parents, it is an important reminder – to stop work and focus on their children – even if it is for 30 minutes a day.
At the same time, the irony is not lost on me: Have we forgotten something as simple as sitting down to have a family meal together, that we need a reminder to do this often?
Is it really so hard to carve out an hour of meaningful connection every day?
BEATING BACK WORKISM
Derek Thompson, in The Atlantic, defines workism as “the belief that work is not only necessary to economic production but also the centrepiece of one’s identity and life’s purpose; and the belief that any policy to promote human welfare must always encourage more work.”
According to data published by the International Labour Organization (ILO) in 2019, three ASEAN countries are in the top 10 when it comes to the longest average workweek, with Myanmar clocking 48 hours, Brunei, 47 and Malaysia, 46.
Thailand and Singapore are in the top 20, with an average of 43 hours spent at work each week.