Free time for moms-what is that?

I heard a news report today that made me stop and question what a so called expert said about stay at home moms having 30 to 40 hours of free time a week. What!!!!  I heard the headline and immediately stopped in my tracks for the 30 seconds I had to stop what I was doing. A Time-use researcher named John Robinson (okay first what is a “time-use researcher" and can I please have that job if I can find the time) has published a study which claims that mothers have 30 to 40 hours of free/leisure time a week and that mothers aren’t doing nearly as much in the home and in childrearing that they did 20 years ago.  To further even more moms yelling at him Robinson claims that mothers and fathers have nearly equal workloads while mothers have more leisure time.  Let me start by reminding my readers that I love being a wife and mother. It is the best thing that I have ever done or ever will do in my life. But as I heard this story reported on the radio this morning I had just finished dropping my child off at preschool, starting laundry, going to the grocery store, running about 4 errands for my family, picking my child up at preschool, doing another load of laundry, dusting, vacuuming, planning school activities for my child, doing team parent responsibilities for my child’s sports team, and planning dinner all before noon.  As I am writing this blog I am getting interrupted by my child asking me to play with them after just taking them to the playground and playing sports outside with them for an hour.  At the same time I am prepping dinner and oh by the way the dryer and washer just signaled that they are both done so I have to go take care of my family’s laundry.   After I fold and sort I then need to prepare a well balanced dinner for my family, do the dishes and then around 10:00 pm I may be able to sit down.  Again I am not saying this to complain about my life-I love my life and would not change a thing about it.  When I was working full-time before we had children I started my day at 8 ended it around 6 and went home.  A mother does not have a time clock.  From the time a mother stay at home or not gets up to the time she falls asleep and only if one of her children sleeps through the night a mother is working.  My husband has a very demanding job and works long hours and I am so fortunate that he finds the energy because of his love of our family to help when he gets home at night but my day at as a mom does not end.  Mom’s do not get sick time, lunch breaks, vacation time.  Being a mother is a full time 24 hour a day 7 day a week job and it is the best most important job in the world in my opinion.  That is why it infuriates me when a “time use researcher” puts these fallacies for lack of a better word out as facts because until someone walks in a mother’s shoes do not judge how a mother spends her time.  I tried to think of how Robinson came up with his conclusions but to be honest I do not have the time to prove him wrong.  I just looked at the clock and I have about 10 minutes to fold laundry before I have to make dinner.  I had better run-I just used 3 minutes of my 30-40 hours of leisure time!