Me Time: Is It Just a Marketing Ploy?

‘Me Time’  is a relatively new invention, it is not a concept that my grandmother would have recognised, so why has it become necessary to invent this so called need?

Some people would say that life has become more stressful and therefore it it necessary for people to make a conscious effort to take time out to focus on their own needs. It is true that people now have a number of responsibilities, men take a more active parenting role than in the past, and many men share responsibility for cooking and household tasks with their partner. Most women need to work to contribute to the family budget, so they have to balance their parenting responsibilities and their household responsibilities with their work commitments. That can certainly lead to a busy life and to a feeling of constantly racing against the clock, but I think my grandmother and her generation would remind us that most household tasks are much easier these days. They would speak of a time when wash day took all day from early morning until night, and it involved heavy physical work. Running a home was a full time job even bath time involved a huge amount of effort to heat and carry water, the stresses may have been different but life was no easier then than it is now.

Could it be that the idea of ‘me time’ has been created to make us feel that it is OK to indulge in selfish pursuits, in fact it is almost portrayed as our responsibility to do so. Is their aim to make us feel that we are missing out and failing in some way if we don’t find time to join the gym, have our nails done etc? It is interesting that most of the things that people tell us we should do have a price tag attached! I am not saying that it is wrong to go to the gym or to have your nails done, but you shouldn’t feel pressured into it.

I think we all need to feel comfortable living in our own skins and that requires a certain degree of self acceptance and contentment. I am not sure that ’me time’ is necessary to achieve that, but it does require some mental free space and the ability to reflect and to recognise and enjoy what you already have. Perhaps the best way to explain my point is to ask what you would want if you were told that you only had a few minths to live? You wouldn’t care about ‘me time’ you would want to spend time with your family and the people that you care most about. We should take pleasure in every stage of our lives and in the people we have around us, children grow up all too soon, so enjoy them and treasure your time with them. Of course we need to grow and develop as people, but it is not necessary to do that in isolation and it doesn’t have to have a price tag!