|
As average home maker spends her time in various activities such as food preparation dish washing, maintenance of home, care of family members, shopping, education of children, social and religious activities and managerial activities.
The pattern of time use is classified into two groups:
- Work time and
- Leisure time.
Work time:
Work is defined as activities producing measurable results for one’s self or others. The varieties of work time include time used for pay, household or home-related work, and volunteer work.
Employment:
Time devoted to employment for pay is one category of work time. Employment time differs with the specific job. The specific nature of work hours influences the duration of non work activities and also affects synchronization of personal activities with those of others.
Home-related work:
Household care, personal care and care of other family members is another form of productive or work time. Although the time requirements of specific household work have changed with the technological advancement, the average requirement of time is almost same.
Volunteer work:
Time contributed to the religious activities a community activities or a national activities for no monetary pay is termed volunteer time.Although people using time for community or household work art not often paid a wage, this time use does affect personal, household, community, and national quality of life.
Non-work time:
Sleepis one of the most time-consuming of all human activities. It accounts for about one-third of an adult's day and an even larger share of a child! Day. Although sleep is needed for survival, the specific amount needed varies with each person. While one person may be refreshed after six hours of sleep others may need nine or more hours of sleep each day. In addition to sleep free time and leisure are classified as non-work time.
Free Time:
Time not devoted to work or to sleep is called free time. Free time may imposed or may occur by choice. A person who seeks full time work but car find only a part-time job or cannot find work is faced with imposed free time If the man or woman has insufficient nonhuman, economic resources-mane transportation, or tools-or lacks interest in free-time activities, this time be a constraint rather than as a resource
Leisure time:
Time spent in activities chosen by the individual and rewarding for its own sake is leisure. In other words, leisure is un-imposed free time. Family picnics. Water-skiing, horse riding, tennis, reading, or other activities not related to work roles are also considered leisure-time activities.
The time use for specific roles and activities limit the choice available for other time uses. Time is an influential resource because it is used with other resources to reach the desired goals. Through application of management principles, individuals and families can utilize time to achieve desired quality of life.
Time Norms for Household Tasks:
Some attempts have been made to establish norms or average times spent on specific household tasks such as bed- making, washing windows and so forth. Whether or not established norms exist and are known to the home-maker who wishes to manage her time, knowledge of her own time costs is extremely important. Over a period of years a home-maker probably knows about how long it takes her to complete most of her various repetitive tasks.
The study by Batra S. and Seetharaman P. (2000) also reported Time norms for various activities. These are as follows:
- Homemaking Activities
The full time home-makers spent maximum time, 6.58 hours on homemaking activities followed by business class, 3.92 hours. The least amount of time was spent by service class, i.e. 3.05 hours on this activity in a day.
- Employment Related Activities
The respondents from service class spent maximum amount of time, 6.63 hours on this activity followed by business class 6.54 hours and professional class 6.46 hours. The least amount of time, 5.04 hours was spent by academicians on employment related activities in day.
- Personal Activities
The respondents from Academic Class spent maximum amount of time 10.22 hours on personal activities followed by full time home-makers, 9.51 hours. The least amount of time, 8.26 hours was spent by professional class on personal activities in a day.
- Miscellaneous Activities
The full time home-makers spent maximum amount of time, 3.19 hours on miscellaneous activities followed by professional class, 2.46 hours and business class, 2.45 hours. The least amount of time, i.e. 2.21 hours was spent by service class on miscellaneous activities in a day.
Norms for Leisure Time:
Some norms are available for leisure time activities of home-makers, Leisure activities may be broadly interpreted as anything not classified as work or rest, and in this interpretation include such uses of time as eating and dressing. They may also be more rigidly interpreted. There is evidence that even in the most restricted sense; leisure is a fairly important part of a homemaker's day. The Weigand study shows a daily average for full time home-makers of approximately 4 to 5 hours spent on community activities and other leisure time activities.
|
Participants