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?

This thread is funny.

OP asked a question.

People answered.

Then they got attacked for answering and told they’re being dramatic, or “it’s not that hard” (no one said it was) or “that’s just everyday tasks!!!”. And? OP asked what life admin is, people answered and MN lost its shit and started to try and one-up each other on who finds life the easiest 🤣🤣🤣

This thread highlights one of the weirdest things about Mumsnet - I'm not sure if I've seen it to this extent elsewhere in internet forums.

From the sheer amount of threads and discussions it's clear the posters come from a wide range of backgrounds and experiences.

Yet some people seem to also not believe that other people are different with different experiences.

@PoundOfNesh and that is the miscommunication. Half of the people on here call it life admin and half get annoyed at us using the word admin coz in your mind admin is basically paperwork.

the definition of admin is the activity or process of organizing an institution or organization. The institution being our personal lives. So all kinds of organisation not just paperwork!

medical appts are within my life admin as it isn’t work or social.

or would you like me to rephrase that list as my life admin plus medical appts? It’s still the sane amount of stuff that needs to be done and gets in the way of my relaxation time.

we are literally arguing over a word!!!

"Life admin" is only a thing if you have to take on somebody else's, or if you shoulder more than half of the burden in a relationship. So maybe it should be called "somebody else's life" admin. But that's a mouthful ...

So that's eight passports renewed within a ten-year period not counting your own. Which means I'm doing a new passport for someone nearly every year.

Wow, renewing one passport every year sounds like hard work.

But on a serious note, how can you even make out that renewing one passport a year takes up such a significant amount of time that it requires a space on the “Life Admin” list?

This is why people hate the term….because sometimes it’s just ridiculous.

@CrushingAndClueless because that’s just one item that poster needs to do probably on top of everything else that they need to do.

But it’s ONE job in the period of a year!!

It’s hardly like she’s doing it every day.

@CrushingAndClueless just because she gave one example doesn’t mean that’s the only thing she does. Surely you can’t be that stupid?

her other days will be filled with other stuff!!!

I’m not targeting the OP personally,

It just amuses me that something that is done once a year, and probably takes an hour, is classed as a stressful “life admin” event.

Someone up thread even classed ordering a prescription as “life admin” which takes up their time. I take medication and ordering my prescription takes up about 30 minutes per month…..that’s it. It’s just life.

I am honestly baffled by this thread.

I think it may have been me - I was waiting on the Sky man to install broadband (fucker didn’t turn up). I gave this as an example of life admin aka extra shit to do.

A few ‘hilarious’ sneery post LS about bum wiping followed and it seems to have Chinese whispered into ‘making a cup of tea’ 😂

This thread is so ridiculous.

A poster said it right earlier, it’s just a modern phrase with a modern meaning. there are so many fuddy duddies attacking people because they don’t like the phrase. Get over it. You don’t like the phase others find it a useful way to describe their to do list.

i wonder if there is any correlation between people who hate the phrase and lack of stuff going on in their lives.

@CrushingAndClueless but those 1 hours and 30 minutes all add up when you have lots of other stuff going on. Surely you can see that?

It's just normal things we all do as part of life running a home and family. People seem to like to give it a name, who knows why 🤷🏼‍♀️ We all have to make appointments, book certain things, look online for things etc. Ofcourse some poeple will have more to do than others, busy weeks and quieter weeks and so on. The difference is most of us don't go on about it and make out like it's a huge deal doing these normal things everyone does.

Dealing with grief
coping with unmedicated (diagnosed adhd)
dealing with my children’s additional needs and problems
dealing with my heart condition and exhaustion
caring for my mother as she has cancer
Working full time
i am a parent doing this by myself as dh is dead. We shared the life admin, he was brilliant.

so if anyone sneers and calls me a failure for struggling to cope with the life admin when all want to do is curl up in a ball and blot the world out can just gtf lol

even making phone calls these days is hard and paperwork is a no.

Because the people who use the phrase life admin are using it as a catch-all term to mean everything that isn't paid work or social stuff.

EVERYTHING.

I don't actually use that phrase - I just call it tasks or chores (to myself) or stuff if I'm talking about it to someone else. As in:

"Wordler, want to come out for a drink after work tomorrow"
"Thanks, can't this week I have too much stuff to get done at home, how about next week"

That week's stuff could be getting one of the kid's passports which would mean - getting new pictures,filling out the forms, getting to the post office to have them signed in front of the officials there etc.

Or it might be I have to host a dinner party for my husband's work colleagues and I'm menu planning and doing an extra deep clean on the house (yes, he's helping too)

The next time my 'life admin' gets in the way of something on my 'social' list it might be an elderly relative needs taking to hospital and needs 2-3 days of visiting and hand-holding.

I'm calling it stuff if I need to explain why I'm busy - someone else is calling it 'life admin'

Fair enough - call them out for a wanky phrase but you can't claim that everyone's chore list is the same. And that every task presents and is completed the same way or as easily by different people.

@Howabsolutelyfanfuckingtastic I haven’t seen anyone complain on this thread. The op asked for examples and people gave them. It’s the haters who are attacking the others.

i would personally have a little moan to my friends and family on my busy weeks but not in my quieter weeks. What’s wrong with that?

But not over what the word means, just in its inclusion.

It's not life admin, it's life.

It's annoying in the same way as people who bang on about adulting in a non ironic way. It's no more worthy than any other aspect of life, it's just the boring shit that everyone has to do. This isn't to imply its easy, or that everyone finds it easy (I certainly don't) but as a term it does grate.

I didn't class it as stressful life admin.

I used it as a task which for some people may be once every ten years and for me is once every 14 months or so.

I don't think any of the people describing their 'life admin' has complained about it being stressful.

It sounds like you've had a really heartbreaking time, sorry to hear that 💐

@OneTC so just out of curiosity if I said sorry I can’t come see you at the weekend I have too much life going on, then you would be fine with that phrase?

Or would you say life, wow that only takes 2 minutes, why didn’t you do it in your lunch hour?

ie is it just the phrase that’s annoying or the tasks I need to do?

No, I don’t. Sorry.

Im not sure that doing 7 hours worth of jobs a year (the ordering of 12 prescription and renewing a passport) can contribute to the “adding up of jobs.”

Doing day to day jobs is just part of life.

If a person was spending hours every single day doing jobs then fair enough….but to give examples of “booking a dentist appointment” which is done once every 6 months as being a piece of time consuming Life Admin is just silly.

Same as when someone talks about researching and booking a Boiler Man….I mean how long can that actually take?!

And the same for booking pets in for the vaccinations….what is so time consuming about that? It’s a two minute phone call.

Im sorry…..but it’s just normal life stuff that everyone does without making a big song and dance about it.

Are the people being 'triggered' (lol another fave!) by the phrase 'life admin' actually surrounded by people in their real lives who constantly complain about their 'life admin'?

I can't work out otherwise why it's causing such an issue.

None of the people on this thread have complained or moaned about the different tasks on their lists.

(yes, I did a mini moan about Christmas but I also explained that I do enjoy it too)

I know you didn’t, and I wasn’t referring to you when I said that, sorry, I should have been clearer.

I was just generalising that a lot of people make out their time is so consumed and their life so busy and stressful due to “life admin”.

I actually LOVE that phrase! That's exactly what I'm going to say from now on - better than 'stuff'

I'm sorry I have too much life going on!

Sorry something's come up normally cuts it