Get off your hobby horse

AIN’T LIFE GRAND I WAS asked what my hobbies are the other day and I was well and truly stumped.

When my kids were little I used to half-jokingly tell people work was my hobby as it was the only thing I did outside of answering never-ending questions from curious toddlers, manhandling mountains of washing and arguing over homework.

In the blink of an eye (well, that’s how it feels some days) the tables turned. We are officially empty-nesters, so in theory I should have plenty of time for officially acceptable hobbies like golf, researching my family history or some sort of craft.

I’ve always thought the word “hobbies” was a quaint word most likely to be associated with people who have retired or won lotto. Like the people who live across the road who wave cheerily as they head off to tennis or out for a walk with their dog at the same time as I head off to work. I think they have retired early, but who knows, maybe they won lotto.

The rest of us are too busy being busy to have something as indulgent as a hobby.

But I’m not complaining. I actually think I am one of the lucky ones. A growing number of women from their 30s to 50s are finding themselves as part of the “sandwich generation” as they juggle parenting and looking after ageing parents. My parents and in-laws are still in relatively good health and see far too little of us, and my kids are no longer dependant on us.

But I do think I’ve come up with a way to describe my situation: the “open sandwich”. That’s a good way to describe people like me — nanas who work full time and spend their spare time helping their adult children with their young grandkids.

It’s not exactly a hobby but it is how I prefer to spend my spare time. It’s my choice and if I preferred a game of tennis to time with toddlers I’m sure nobody would mind.

With four grandkids under three my weekends are a blur of stories, cuddles and tantrums (theirs and their parents’, not mine). But I don’t want to be anywhere else so my answer to that question about my hobbies was this: grandparenting.

THE REST OF US ARE TOO BUSY BEING BUSY TO HAVE SOMETHING AS INDULGENT AS A HOBBY.