It’s not easy to gift your time

“Time is your most precious gift because you only have a set amount of it. You can make more money, but you can’t make more time. When you give someone your time, you are giving them a portion of your life that you’ll never get back. Your time is your life.” —
― Rick Warren, The Purpose Driven Life: What on Earth Am I Here for?

I often wonder how true it is that time is undoubtedly the MOST precious gift one can ever give. And it’s not an easy task to give your time away. Sometimes we need to be present for our loved ones and push our deadlines and goals aside. Unless you immensely love and respect that person, you can’t do it without feeling guilty of losing your time.

So, the next time you feel reluctant to give your time to someone, understand that sometimes it’s okay to prioritize your growth for leading a life with a purpose. I observe that many women spend most of their day looking after their house or kids more than men. Even if the women are working, the situation doesn’t get any better.

Whatever their reasons, most of the women I know don’t feel good about this workload. One of my friends recently expressed how she unconsciously fell into the loop of family responsibilities after having two kids in her life.

Its been six years since she gave birth to the first child, and today her entire day is consumed by her two daughters. She adores them just like any other parent and is happy to be there to help them with their day-to-day needs. But, somewhere on this journey, she has lost her interests, life ambitions, and career goals.

Raising children is not going to be over in a few days or months. Only when women learn to distribute all the household work among other family members and allocate some time to themselves can they lead a life with satisfaction.

According to an article published on Gallup, Women Still Handle Main Household Tasks in the U.S. They take responsibility mainly for laundry (58%), cleaning, and cooking (51%) which are pretty much everyday tasks. And Men mainly take the lead on keeping cars in order (69%) and doing yardwork (59%) which requires their time once every few days but not every day.

I wish women prioritize taking out more time for themselves and their career growth and involve their spouse and children in sharing the tasks. What do you think? Do men take equal responsibility when it comes to household activities?