I read with interest, and amusement, then with increasing amazement Peter Ormerod's feature on 9th January: "On Sunday or Monday? When does the week really begin?" I do not have a strong opinion whether the week begins on a Sunday or a Monday (or on any other day, for that matter). What I find astonishing is his description of a Sunday: "Sundays serve as a long and relaxing lie-in before work." After extensive debate over this with 4 friends over a very good curry in Kineton on Friday night, I feel compelled to give a more balanced representation of a typical Sunday, based on an average family of 4 with 2 working parents and 2 school aged children, leading our lives as New Labour and The Media would encourage us to do so:
1. Monday to Friday is spent working a 40 - 60 hour week in a desperate attempt to avoid redundancy, remembering to send children into school each day with the right combination of swimming, football and dance kit, making nutritionally balanced Jamie Oliver-standard packed lunches every night, helping with homework, trips to the doctor/dentist/optician/hairdresser, doing the bare minimum of washing and ironing to keep everyone in uniform for the week and maybe, if you're very lucky, a drink with friends or a trip to the gym.
2. Saturday and Sunday are therefore the only days left for: supermarket shopping, sport, washing, drying and ironing clothes, tidying and cleaning the house, preparing home-cooked meals (Nigella or Gordon standard this time), taking children to and from parties, starting the school project, paying household bills, tackling the pile of post on the doormat, planning the summer camping holiday, sending a birthday card to Aunty Marge, cleaning school shoes, replacing broken light bulbs, building a 1,000 piece lego set and making origami paper aeroplanes with your son and playing shopkeepers with your daughter ... with maybe a sneaky 20 mins on facebook to remind yourself that you do have adult friends out there. Maybe it's me.
Maybe we should be able to fit all of 2. above into one day, but I don't think I'm alone in suggesting that would be a bit like trying to stuff an octopus into a string bag. I would love to canvass opinion (as we are not allowed to use the word 'vote' any more) as to whether Sunday is a "long relaxing lie in" or in fact an inevitable day of rushing around to get the chores done before the whole cycle starts again on a Monday morning?
Let me know what you think!
1. Monday to Friday is spent working a 40 - 60 hour week in a desperate attempt to avoid redundancy, remembering to send children into school each day with the right combination of swimming, football and dance kit, making nutritionally balanced Jamie Oliver-standard packed lunches every night, helping with homework, trips to the doctor/dentist/optician/hairdresser, doing the bare minimum of washing and ironing to keep everyone in uniform for the week and maybe, if you're very lucky, a drink with friends or a trip to the gym.
2. Saturday and Sunday are therefore the only days left for: supermarket shopping, sport, washing, drying and ironing clothes, tidying and cleaning the house, preparing home-cooked meals (Nigella or Gordon standard this time), taking children to and from parties, starting the school project, paying household bills, tackling the pile of post on the doormat, planning the summer camping holiday, sending a birthday card to Aunty Marge, cleaning school shoes, replacing broken light bulbs, building a 1,000 piece lego set and making origami paper aeroplanes with your son and playing shopkeepers with your daughter ... with maybe a sneaky 20 mins on facebook to remind yourself that you do have adult friends out there. Maybe it's me.
Maybe we should be able to fit all of 2. above into one day, but I don't think I'm alone in suggesting that would be a bit like trying to stuff an octopus into a string bag. I would love to canvass opinion (as we are not allowed to use the word 'vote' any more) as to whether Sunday is a "long relaxing lie in" or in fact an inevitable day of rushing around to get the chores done before the whole cycle starts again on a Monday morning?
Let me know what you think!
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