Life Admin, what is it?

[OneSugarOneSpoon]

Have seen the phrase a few times now, where people have little free time as they're doing this " life admin" most days
What exactly is it? My bills go by direct debit, shopping on line, kids stuff from school doesn't take that long...so am I missing something?

We are seeking an asd assessment for ds1. That involves a lot of paperwork and phonecalls.

You've reminded me I need to put my car in for mot!!

Well, you’ve just listed 2 things yourself.

I'd class shopping online as life admin.

Also

Any online shopping
Ordering child school dinners
Paying childcare
Changing or renewing phone contract, energy supplier or insurance.
Booking days out or child's kids party & sending out the invitations.
Meal planning
Planning and booking holidays
Choosing a plumber online and booking them

It’s just that - paying the bills, doing the online food shopping, booking the dental/optician/vet appointments, that sort of stuff that many of us do in our lunch breaks or in the evenings without a big song and dance.

My very favourite one on here was the “school uniform admin” that prevented one poster from getting a job Everyone on the thread was

sorting out passports
spring holiday insurance
calling up car insurance because they have made a mistake on the policy
calling up gp for appointment
driving to post office
picking up prescriptions from pharmacy

It adult life. Its all the things you hopefully didnt even know needed doing as a child. (I appreciate there are a lot of young carers out there)

For me it's all the jobs I do outside of work that keep me and my home running smoothly. Could be sorting out finances/ batch cooking/ attending appointments/laundry/housework etc etc

Organising santa, birthdays, cards, keeping in touch with family, paying bills, sorting clothes, holidays. Just any old rubbish you need to do to get by day to day.

Taking things to the post office. Paying in cheques because elderly relatives don’t do online banking. Booking holidays / hair dressers / doctors / dentist, trying to arrange tradesman, discuss things with school, paying people via online banking. Bills, insurance, car. It’s frigging endless

I have a friend (no children) who makes a very big deal out of doing 'life admin'. Things which seem to take me a fraction of the time to do.

In the last week I have:

Remortgaging
Gas safety certificate
Applying for a new bank account
Budgeting and tracking spending
Prepping for kids parties
Looking around 5 secondary schools
Online research for said schools
Renewing library books
Amazon sale shopping
Researching ring doorbells
Researching hive heating system
Programming current heating system
Online grocery shopping
Posting stuff sold on vinted
Putting stuff up for sale on vinted / FB
Best mates big birthday ideas / research
Holiday research / booking
Weekend in London booking including research and restaurants

No doubt there's a million more other things!!

I don't get all the fuss about it, it's just stuff you do as part of life.

Everything above and more. All the little shit bits that needs to be done. It builds up and it's usually one half of the couple the bears the brunt of it.

Online food shop
Booking appointments for opticians, hair, dog groomers, vets
Prescriptions
Dog prescriptions
Car service/mot
Mortgage rate switch
Passport renewal application
Paying bills
Christmas/birthday shopping

Not all of things have to be done on a regular basis.

I am so bored of similar posts, which just utterly lack empathy.
My life contains no admin therefore nobody else's possibly can. 🤯

Some people have more than others. Someone I know hasn’t changed mortgage or utility or insurance companies in years - they just let the policies/contracts renew automatically where as DH will shop around very time something is due for renewal to make sure getting the best deal etc.

Some people have 1 child in 1 school and others have 3 in different school plus SEN meeting or other issues that require a lot of meetings/reports/forms/assessments etc

Some people order the same food shop every week and others research recipes and make a different food plan each time.

some people have large amounts of family and friends that they send cards/presents to for birthdays/Christmas/Easter/2nd Tuesday of the month others don’t bother or have much smaller families

some people go on multiple holidays and trips a years needing research/comparisons/booking and others don’t go anywhere

some people do a lot of volunteering which comes with tasks to do

its the same with all other aspects of life - we are all different. My beauty regime is less than 5 min, other people spend hours a week on facial treatments and stuff.

looking at stuff on Amazon is life admin?

Making medical appointments, calling for test results, ordering prescriptions, picking up prescriptions, adding medical info to school, after-school club and breakfast club systems, vet appointments, diary reminders for flea/ worming cat and dog, organising birthday parties and holidays, organising.holiday childcare, school stuff e.g trip forms, bake sales, parents eve appointments, tapestry notifications, reading emails and newsletters from the schools, budgeting, shopping around for insurance and energy deals, organising house maintenance e.g. gas checks, repairs, gutter cleaning etc. Booking activities and lessons. Other financial stuff - mortgages, ISA's, pet insurance etc. Booking annual leave to deal with all the other shit that's going on. Sending birthday cards /gifts to family and friends (I am pretty bad at this one). Renewing subscriptions and library books etc.. When I was renting and moving around frequently a lot of time was spent updating my address details for a million different accounts - bank, medical, online, work, student loans, kids schools etc

My kids do activities. Lots of them. They need sorting.
Yes, if your dc don't do any activities, or not many, then yes, you don't need to sort them.

No but the sending it back after you drunk ordered it, is.

It’s just stuff you do that keeps your household ticking over isn’t it?

In the past week I have taken my son for his preschool booster jabs, booked his flu jab, spoken to 2 health visitors about a SALT and audiology referral for him, ordered my daughters repeat prescription, printed all the documents for our upcoming holiday, spent an hour trying to unpick my mum’s new energy bill estimates with her, taken my car for it’s MOT… the list goes on. Not difficult necessarily but nonetheless, needs to be done and can be time consuming.

Doing your taxes, budgeting, food shopping, booking dental/GP, arranging play dates, doing the Xmas cards, arranging the social calendar, getting the plumber in, getting the car serviced, chimney swept, booking parent teacher slots, making sure uniforms are labelled and all bits accounted for, keeping track of mufti days, when projects are due, dress up days, match days, sport days, prize giving days, Christmas carol service, booking vets for annual vaccinations, booking kennels, booking groomers, making sure car has petrol, the window cleaner gets a Christmas tip, keeping track of recycling or rubbish weeks, booking holidays, making sure passports are in date, exchanging money, and on and on and on

Great post @BrieAndChilli

I just can't be arsed to type all the stuff out any more to people who don't get it. And don't want to.

It's a bit like saying 'it only takes me one hour to clean my studio flat so I have absolutely no idea how Buckingham palace takes longer.'

Insurance can be a time consuming exercise