Hands up if you have time for a hobby.

Whatever happened to hobbies? Do you have one? Did you used to? Maybe you knit boobs in your spare time, or maybe your spare time consists of a whole two minutes or perhaps you are a champion cross-stitcher. Mamamia contributor, Kate Hunter writes:

“The other day, for her homework, my daughter had to ask me about my hobbies. It was a very easy homework assignment, because I don’t have any. I mean – hobbies- who has time for them?

Does anyone collect stamps anymore? Who’s into Bonsai? Decoupage? Do you while away evening hours doing cross stitch or making model ships? There’s a big Scrapbooking section at Spotlight so I assume this is popular, although I have only a very vague idea of what it is. Photos of our family holidays are lucky to make it to the fridge door let alone into a decorated album. I asked my friends about their hobbies. Some looked at me as if I were mental and others said, ‘I wish.’ One said her hobby was smoking and picking fleas off the cat. She does it on the veranda after the kids are in bed.

It seems everyone is just too busy for hobbies. And there are too few empty hours to fill. There’s always something on tv and the shops are always open. The Internet never sleeps. Kids’ days, nights and weekends are so scheduled there are no dreary afternoons sorting through foreign coins for that missing treasure, or building towns out of matchsticks.

It seems the most we can hope for is that we enjoy the things we need to do – like cooking or gardening or keeping fit. These are not hobbies in my opinion. They need to be done and if you like doing them, happy days.

Do you have a hobby? Would you like one? If you like folding the laundry while watching the Kardashians, does that count as a hobby?”