just say no

I might just buy myself this calendar for Christmas.

I've started to consider that if the time I put in "of service" to others this fall was paid, it would be worth a fair bit of money. I am not saying that volunteer work is not important -- it is, but women seem to do more of it than men in my experience. Unless the man is retired. Women do it when they are working and raising children. When I think about my time lately that was devoted for service it goes like this: volunteering at Sophie's school (making mittens), taking the minutes at Canadian Parents for French, baking party mix for daycare's fundraiser, baking cookies for this Friday's Kindergarten party, drafting up HR documents for the daycare, taking the minutes for the daycare, being a mom helper at ballet....

I found an interesting reference in an article recently: "Why have women signed on to do so many things at once? We don't, after all, expect men to multitask. A man lying on the sofa reading the newspaper is busy. A woman lying on the sofa reading the newspaper is underemployed and interruptible-a signal her family picks up because she herself sends it out. We seem to consider ourselves unworthy unless we make ourselves available to our family and others all of the time-and there's no way to do that without cramming every minute with two or three chores." (Alexis Jetter).

Interesting perspective.