If you don't consider life admin to be a thing...

[ruethewhirl]

...then how do you mentally 'label' (so to speak) things like banking and official correspondence?

Not being goady here, genuinely curious. Not a TAAT as such, I see it stated so often on MN that there's 'no such thing' as life admin or the mental load (although I tend to assume the latter refers to slightly different things eg each partner doing their share of things like remembering birthdays, making sure the kids have clean clothes etc). Life admin-wise, part of why I'm bemused by this is that I have a lot of things to take care of in my life that I think definitely count as life admin - not only my own banking, but managing correspondence with my GP's surgery (I have multiple conditions) and also handling my mum's finances at her request (she has Alzheimer's) plus handling her general correspondence and sorting things out on the many occasions her care company drops the ball. 🙄 Oh, and chasing the vet/pet insurance company about insurance claims for our cats that seem to drag on for ever!

And then there are things like handling the correspondence if you switch banks or energy providers, complaining about poor service, managing quotes if you're getting home improvements done... what are these things if not life admin? What do you call them instead?

Is it really so insane to suggest that these types of activities warrant an umbrella term with which to refer to them? Presumably the vast majority of people have at least some of this kind of stuff to do in their day-to-day lives, so it puzzles me when people claim there's no such thing. (And if you're one of them, how do you refer to these tasks?)

YABU: There's no such thing as life admin
YANBU: Yes there is!

@Statsquestion1 Who do you bank with? Mine (Nat West) never answer in less that 20 minutes, then the initial call handler can't usually solve the problem so I have to call a different department. And on it goes....

It's just called life. Living and doing stuff.

This. I've never felt the need to label it or place such an emphasis on it. It's just part of everyday life. I can understand if you have care giving needs or children with SEN then it is overwhelming but I can't understand the posts I see on here when it becomes such an onerous task, requiring hours of time a week and it's frequently used as an excuse by many SAHMs with older children why they can't go to work.

With technology now, it's even quicker to do. Things like my insurance and energy renewal took minutes to do as do any banking tasks.

@noidea69 have you ever had to call HMRC?

Exactly. Yesterday evening I paid for school trips online, updated the family online calendar, online shopping list, supervised my youngest child in the bath and discussed plans for lifts for the weekend with my 16 year old, all whilst sat on the toilet. It's just shit you need to get done (literally). I just don't understand why people make it out to be such a stressful thing to deal with.

Nothing to do with being a martyr. Yes, some tasks can be done while watching TV. Others require more concentration.

no i havent, i just do a tax return once a year on line.

How often do you have to call HMRC? i would put something like that down in the same category as sorting out your remortgage, yeah its a pain in arse but its a one off task every few years.

I do think there is a difference if you have caring responsibilities beyond the normal child responsibilities so SEND kids or elderly parents etc as that takes a lot more time

If you've got got elderly relatives, or dependents with health problems fair enough that takes a lot of time and occupies a lot of your brain capacity and is very difficult

The rest of it really doesn't take a lot of time, energy or brain space

My dealing with official correspondence is - open - skim read - put in a box.
Nothing really important comes via post anyway.

I think the eyrolls really do come on because some people on MN make it look like they change suppliers and insurance every month tbh...

I'm guessing your grandmother was Scottish? My family in Scotland always talked about "going for the messages" which included everything from buying groceries and kid's shoes, to doing banking, post office etc. Always got blank looks if I used the term when I lived in England. Now that I live in Canada it's "running errands."

Because this is MN, everything has to be a type of martyrdom, especially if it's in favour of the female! It's only on MN that I've ever seen the words 'life admin'.

For me this usually comes up in the context of, say, telling DH (who has his share of stuff to do as well, but more free time than me as not caring for an elderly parent who's under the same roof) that I'm not free to watch telly on a particular evening, just to give an example. 😄 And in that context I tend to just refer to it as 'stuff', but that tends to invite the question 'What kind of stuff'? 😄

I don't sideline social invitations to do these kinds of things, but I think some pps are conflating the amount of time something takes with whether it needs to be called anything or not. Personally I think 'life admin' is perfectly fitting even for stuff that can be done while watching TV or whatever (which I often do). It's admin and it's related to life, so... shrugs

Definitely is real, I would also call it Adulting.

Commiserations as I know how hard care admin is tangled with Alzheimer's. Later comes Death Admin which is awful.

I agree with others that it depends on the life stage people are in.

I do handle most of the life admin in our marriage, I would say it's because I'm more detail oriented, hubby not so much. It's just something he doesn't notice really, stressful for him, whereas I'm good at it. He does handle car aspects though and other aspects that I don't need to worry about so it is like 75/25 split I would say.

Who said anything about martyrdom?

I call HMRC regularly in my role as a Treasurer and never have a problem either getting through or with their helpfulness, in fact the advice I received when I first called them saved us money!

I am someone who just gets things done and so is DH so I don’t see these things as some massive task. Kids needs a dentist appointment? Phone and make one. Dog needs his annual vaccines? Phone and make the appointment. School forms need filled in? Fill it in and pop it straight back in the school bag.

One of my DC had multiple health issues with lots of appointments so we get the appointment through and then check work diaries to see who can go then just go.

Both DC have out of school activities with endless emails, invoices, showcases to buy tickets for, new uniforms etc so I just action the stuff as it comes up.

Insurances are once a year. Holidays don’t take long to organise at all but do take lots of research (food allergies make holiday planning lots of fun) but I want to go on holiday so just do it when sitting waiting on the kids or on lunch at work or sitting in bed at night when I can’t sleep.

Banking - I don’t get what ‘banking’ people are constantly doing that takes so much time. I just look on the app every few days.

It isn’t ’life admin’ to me it’s just ‘life’.

Because the majority of people on here make such a deal about it, as they do about many simple tasks, poor me, when in reality they're very simple.

Agreed if organised and decisive and in full possession of all the knowledge you need. There's follow through too though. Did gutter man come? Paying him by BACS probably.
Birthday presents for parents?

Personally I don't like the term life admin as it just lumps a load of complete unrelated tasks of varying importance together.

For example dealing with your mums care home, making sure she's safe is an important and draining task. Changing energy supplier possibly needs doing but isn't usually urgent. Banking can usually be delayed until you've got time, and with banking apps takes no time. Complaining about poor service is unnecessary if you don't have time.

If you add in every tiny little task you do into that one great umbrella it's just creating a massive wad of 'task" which then becomes very difficult to manage, and seems overwhelming. Most little tasks I just do and don't really think about, usually when I'm watching TV in the evening or if I've got a minute on my lunch break.

To be fair, I have had to call HMRC recently to deal with something for an elderly relative, and it did take ages to get through.

Personally, I wouldn't class caring for elderly relatives, including the administrative burden that often goes along with that, "life admin". Apart from anything else, none of that admin relates to my life!!!

'Life Admin' is definitely a thing and requires a certain amount being set aside every so often (maybe four weekly), to deal with.

It has always existed and now it has a label which I, as someone who does not generally care for labels and the like, think is a very appropriate one. When I first saw it I knew exactly what it meant.

I haven't seen anyone on this thread do that, though. Is it possible you're projecting a little based on things you've read on other threads?

I think it depends on what sorts of things need doing, and also what you share with your partner/husband. Like, christmas is a busy time of year for buying gifts, wrapping presents, organising family stuff, keeping on top of school events etc etc, and some would view this sort of thing as 'life admin', whereas others just class it as Christmas!

I always wonder what life admin really is, but then my partner does most of the bill sorting and organising of holidays and childcare, so I don't really feel the burden in all honesty. I do other things, like organise for the plumber to come out, or the decorator to give a quote etc, so it's fairly evenly split.

You seem to have more admin than most though. I don't really do much "banking" for instance