Is this a ‘Soft life’

[Wellthatwasabrupt]

And would you want it?

Has Dh, one young Dc and dogs, lives overseas by the beach and countryside, nice house with pool and sea views.
Works 6 hours per week from home. Does all drop offs and pick ups, food shop, dinners, majority to do with Dc and sorting bills. Has a cleaner.
Dh works Mon-Fri -finishes 4.30, no one works weekends.
Days are free based around Dc school drops, coffee with friends, Pilates, yoga, studying or reading if you like, watching Netflix all day if you like, shopping, beach, pool, garden

Would you call this a soft life? Would you like it, be honest?

I had something like that before children, no swimming pool (neither a stupid level of money) but had the coast, the countryside, plenty of travel, hardly any work, Pilates, walking the dogs, meeting my friends, and decorating the house.

The tedium of it and the lack of clear personal goals and challenges was absolutely soul destroying. Even after all these years I consider it my personal version of hell. Back then I just referred to it as my gilded cage…

Everyone will not agree with you OP. It sounds a nice life but I can definitely see how others would find it uninspiring and would prefer a life actively chasing their goals and improving the world in their own little ways.

You seem hell-bent on having everyone agree it's a dream life and put out when people say otherwise. It makes you seem very insecure in your choices if this is indeed your life.

That's a really sad way of looking at life. You have a serious chip on your shoulder if that is how you see work. We're not all going to be Presidents/Chief Execs/Business owners, many wouldn't want to be. But we can still make a contribution to society as an employee. It works both ways, they need you but you also need them. People who own the machines have mostly started as cogs.

But how are the majority of people improving the world in their own little way, more than this person is??

You’re never going to say who you actually are, are you, OP?

What’s the point of working 6 hours a week.

It does sound like a very easy life and I think I’d enjoy it for 3-6 months and probably really benefit from having a break and recharging. Long term though I think I’d find it dull. I have worked at least full time, at times multiple jobs simultaneously, since I was 16. I was back at work FT when DD was 9 months. I progress and develop in my career regularly, learning, taking on new challenges. I do self-study to stay up to date in my sector or focus on passion projects. I am always always doing something, or multi-tasking.

What a bizarre question! To get 6 hours' worth of pay, maybe?? 🤔

Great. And what about your child?

How old is the child? Babies and toddlers benefit from mum at home. Older than that benefit from seeing both parents displaying progression, challenges and role models.

This baby was 9 months old
Plus it goes further than toddlers, always better for a child to be with her mother than other caregivers.

Depends on the mother.

Seeing as 'soft life' has all day to themselves schlepping round, I assume your child is school age.

So what about your child?
If you were that invested you would home school and not let said child out of your sight.

Why would you need to not let your child out of your sight in order to be invested in them?
What a ridiculous comment.

Didn't mean it like that.
Soft life needs to be around for child because any other care givers aren't good enough
So why all of a sudden when child is of school age they are happy to pack it off. So one day, no one but they are good enough, next day, off child goes to school when suddenly someone is good enough.

Because school is education not childcare.

Trying to suggest daycare for a baby or toddler is the same as sending a school aged child to school is illogical. It’s not the gotcha you think it is. It’s very easy to be uncomfortable with one and not the other, that’s not a contraction at all.

I’d agree that anyone who thinks work isn’t worth doing if they’re not president/ceo etc or that people who aren’t those things aren’t contributing to society has a sad way of thinking and a serious chip. That’s not me however as I never said and do not think those things 🤷‍♀️

Surely you realise that huge numbers of people all over the work spend many, many hours doing voluntary work, sometimes giving up holidays and taking sabbaticals to do so if they work, donating huge amounts of their income, working tirelessly as charity trustees, etc. All making a huge difference to the world.

If the person earns £300 pounds an hour for example, it's probably worthwhile given that they stated the family was only just 'getting by'. That's not a situation many people would want to be in.

Do you have anything to back that up or is that your opinion? Research proves that children benefit hugely from socialisation and appropriate levels of independence from a very young age.

Probably yeah but I'd like to do lots of travel so no work at all please!
Also my fantasy life doesn't revolve round DC and their activities but I know many people's do.

You seem to be suggesting I don’t care about my child? I’ll give you the opportunity to support that in some way that doesn’t make you seem like a raging judgemental idiot.

While you’re at it, please explain how seeing you piss about all day paying someone else to clean your house while you go for brunch with your friends, walk on the beach and do Pilates helps your child(ren).

All the research proves there’s no benefit to the child until older than 3, that’s a long way off 9months and standard preschool covers it.

If the point of this thread isn’t for social media/ marketing research then I’m thinking that the OP’s insistence that she has life 100% nailed is evidence of her being an extremely competitive person, who is able to sell herself: “my way is best and I win”. I can’t help but think how amazing she might have been in the workplace, particularly the private sector, where that personality type and drive to be seen as the best tends to prevail at the top leadership levels. It this another case of potentially amazing workplace talent wasted on 1950s housewifery?

Perhaps only if you only place value on paid for labour on the workforce and don’t place any labour on the same skills used in the rest of your life.
It’s almost as if you can have a driven personality, want to succeed, be motivated, exhibit leadership skills and not want to have a full time paid role.