Margaret Clayton: Forget perfection, slow down and enjoy life to be a real Superwoman

TIME and how we spend it is one of the biggest pressures in a woman’s life.

In our bid to be Superwoman we try to cram so much activity into each day that it leaves us feeling burnt-out and exhausted.

Research published last week found that, for a large proportion of mothers, the pressures of parenting as well as holding down a job has meant many traditional tasks have fallen by the wayside.

Cooking an evening meal from scratch? Only 23% of women claimed they had time for that and a third of the 1000 polled found chores such as ironing bed linen were too much for them.

Making a child’s birthday cake? One in five managed – the others relied on store-bought cakes.

The study also found nearly one in five mums felt inadequate when they saw that friends on social media were seemingly able to juggle motherhood with a career. This left them feeling they were failures because they barely had time to brush their hair or apply make-up before they left the house in the morning.

Everything in the lives of modern women has become rushed and even relaxation times have been hit, with 19% saying they no longer read a book in the evening or enjoyed a lie-in on a Sunday .

So what can we do about this relentless pressure on us?

Perhaps it’s time to take stock and be realistic.

Our mother’s lives were more limited. Many of them didn’t drive, or hold down a job while raising a family or feel the need for perfection in so many areas.

My mum was perfectly happy if it was a good day for drying the washing, weeding the garden, walking to the shops for some fresh vegetables for the stew she planned to make.

Then she’d collect me from school and have a blether with the mums at the school gate.

At home she’d ask about my day while I drank a glass of milk and then I’d do my homework, she’d check it and I’d go out to play with my friends before dinner, bath, and a bedtime story.

The routine never changed.

One good dress for Sunday School, a week’s holiday at the seaside, a home-made birthday cake with Smarties on top and a visit to the library every Saturday to change my books.

When I contrast that with the busy lives of modern women I wonder – were my mother and women of her generation, bored with their lives? Did they want more?

Did they find that making do on one wage was a strain? Had they ambitions to travel, socialise, buy more clothes, have a career, enjoy some independence?

Women fought for the rights to be equal and we’ve come a long way. But we’ve lost the gift of enjoying life’s little things.

Maybe it’s time to reclaim some “me” time and use it for savouring the everyday pleasures of the world around us.