Busier Than Ever Why American Families Can't Slo Don [Hardcover]

Busyness defines the lives of most Americans. For some, the focus of busyness is family. For others, it is career or social activities. Sometimes busyness results from a big event, like the catastrophic illness of a family member, but much of it builds from many seemingly inconsequential demands that collectively become overwhelming. We search for the best airline prices on the Internet, are partners with teachers in our children's education, and employ a battery of devices that promise to save labor if only we can learn how to use them.Busier Than Ever!follows the daily activities of fourteen American families. It explores why they are busy and what the consequences are for their lives. Busyness is not just a matter of personal time management, but of the activities we participate in and how each of us creates the good life. While numerous books deal with efficiency and the difficulties of balancing work and family,Busier Than Ever!offers a fresh approach. Busyness is not a problem to be solvedit is who we are as Americans and it's redefining American families. Overscheduled families with mission statements. Parents on the run. Kids too busy for childhood. Work invades family life, and vice versa. Blurred boundaries and compartmentalized behavior. How do families create and manage the myriad obligations of middle-class life in 21st century America? Based on extended and detailed ethnographic fieldwork, with intriguing and appealing case studies, the authors offer an unique analysis of contemporary life. No one seeking to understand the American middle class today can afford to miss this highly readable and revealing book. ...intriguing, insightful, and suggestive...raises important questions about people's social lives. The authors have discovered a remarkable paradox. In their devotion to family, parents often express a desire for efficiency, control, productivity  a 'new instrumentalism' many of us associate with work. This is a timel«