Does life admin take up a greater percentage of professional adult’s non working time now than 50 years ago?
I’d say quite possibly
Like what?
Didn't mean to post.
Direct Debits didn't exist.
Bills were via cheque, which needed fooking posting
fook kids party today, ah will Wang an Amazon card over to parent.
Shopping for almost anything better online
Food shopping direct to house, as booze
Most "life admin* can be done on sofa or train
Definitely. Mostly because we have way less non-work time.
Imagine going home and that being you for the day
Well for a start 50 years ago it was a 5 day commute, now it's 1 or 2 unless you are insane, so that's probably 6 hours back. What additional admin is there that didn't exist 50 years ago when you go back home?
I suppose typically the wife did more back then, is that your point?
The amount of school and club activity that takes up parental time is exponentially more than when I were a lad, for starters.
No, parents in 2026 almost certainly handle more life admin tasks than in 1976. Life admin (bureaucratic/paperwork tasks like bills, scheduling, forms, appointments, school communications, insurance, taxes, and compliance) has expanded significantly due to technology, regulations, expectations, and societal shifts, even as some chores became easier.
Key Differences in Life Admin Load
1976 Context (Simpler, Less Formalized):
Fewer dual-income households overall (though rising), with more stay-at-home parents managing the home as a primary role. Many routine tasks were manual but infrequent or low-frequency.
Bills and finances: Mostly cash/checks, mailed statements, fewer subscriptions or automated services. Less tracking of recurring payments.
Healthcare: Simpler insurance, fewer specialists, less documentation for claims or preventive care. Pediatric visits were routine with minimal forms.
Schools: Limited parental involvement expected. Kids often walked/biked freely; less volunteering, permission slips, or daily/weekly communications. No email portals, apps, or constant updates. Special education laws (like early IDEA) existed but with far less paperwork than today.
Scheduling/activities: Fewer structured extracurriculars, sports leagues, or enrichment. Less "enrichment" pressure; kids had more unstructured time.
Government/Compliance: Less complex tax filings for most, fewer benefits programs requiring applications/recertifications, minimal data privacy or safety regs affecting daily life.
Overall: Many parents dealt with physical mail, phone calls, and in-person errands, but volume and frequency were lower. "Benevolent neglect" or free-range norms meant less oversight burden.
2026 Context (More Layers, Digital + Regulatory):
Digital tools cut some friction (online banking, auto-pay, e-forms, apps for scheduling) but introduced new loads: managing passwords, apps, notifications, data entry, two-factor auth, and constant updates. Email/school portals create daily check-ins.
Schools demand far more: Increased parental involvement (volunteering hours, conferences, homework help, events), digital platforms, IEPs/504 plans with heavy documentation, consent forms, and compliance. Administrative bloat in education has grown dramatically (e.g., non-teaching staff surged).
Healthcare: More complex insurance, prior authorizations, portals for records/appointments, vaccination/safety tracking, mental health forms, and specialist coordination. Preventive and wellness admin is higher.
Activities and scheduling: Intensive parenting norms mean more logistics for sports, lessons, playdates, camps—often with waivers, payments, and tracking. GPS/apps add monitoring but also management.
Broader bureaucracy: More regulations (safety, privacy, consumer protections), benefits/tax credits requiring documentation, subscription overload, and identity/fraud monitoring. Dual-working parents (more common) split or double these tasks.
Parents today spend more total time on child-related activities (including managerial ones like organizing and planning), even as housework dropped due to appliances.
Counterpoints and Nuances
Time savings exist: Appliances, online shopping, and automation reduced pure physical drudgery (laundry, shopping). Some admin moved online and feels "quicker."
Expectations rose: Modern "intensive parenting" (especially among educated/affluent families) adds emotional and logistical load—more deliberate involvement, not just maintenance.
Data limitations: Direct apples-to-apples studies on "life admin hours" are scarce, but trends in administrative burden (education, healthcare, government) and time-use surveys point to higher managerial demands now. Total parental workload (paid + unpaid) hasn't dropped much despite tech.
In short, 1976 had more manual hassle but less volume, oversight, and formal bureaucracy. 2026 has efficiency tools but vastly more tasks, touchpoints, and expectations. Parents today juggle a more complex administrative web.
Yes.
It's an absolute PITA.
Fannies
Thank you for a very interesting question.
While I take the point about eg cheques/direct debits etc., that was it. There were fewer choices to make (providers/tariffs) and fewer things to monitor.
There is also more time to do things - using. Mobile whole travelling as pointed out above plus working from home allows far more personal admin
So overall, less. Perhaps people are just less organised. Yes, I think that is part of it
No.
To do anything in 1976 was an absolute balls-ache.
Train times? Need to visit the station.
Insurance? Need to visit high street insurance broker who may not even be open.
Pay or receive money? Write a cheque or -- or visit a bank to pay in cheque, or write out a cheque there for cash with a very long queue (very few cash machines then.And the banks also closed for lunch.
Buy anything - take a trip into town and visit a shop. Very little choice.
Book an overseas holiday? Drive into town and visit travel agent, take away an armful of brochures and then return a week later to book up.
Life nowadays is a dream of free time compared to then…
My parents did a load of those things by telephone or correspondence. Think my dad occasionally abused the office telex too to book hotels abroad.
I can remember my dad phoning the AA to get sent personalized route maps for long journeys.
Direct Line insurance started phone insurance in 1985, and it only really took off 5 years later with their famous red telephone on wheels advert.
But you could still phone your broker to then deal with the insurer.
As above - people have less non work time now. WFH may allow some modest clawback but most professional people I know are working til midnight at least a couple of evenings a week, including me now.
actual necessary life admin - I doubt it
fvcking around on line to little effect - definitely
threepwood makes the key point:
Definitely. Mostly because we have way less non-work time.
in 1985, I doubt most couples were both working full time. Now most couples do both work full time - at least in certain segments of the population.
also - and this is hard to prove - I have the feeling that schools make far more demands on parents than they used to. partly because of the ease of comms via WhatsApp. ie class teacher has liaison parent and they dream up all sorts of things that parents need to do (and not just the wretched dressing up for world book day !)
That sounds terrible Laz. Merkz point is correct
Yes because 50 years ago most professionals were men and their non working wives did most of their life admin
Internet admin is more convenient but I'm not sure it is faster.
I haven't used an insurance broker in years, since he retired in fact. The thread has reminded me how much easier that was, to just call him, and now I do it all myself. What a mug.
I used to do all mine in the office, and our general office chap, a fine man, would get my car tax for me at the Post Office, for example. No wife required.
Both my parents were working in 1976, and most of my mates parents were too.
And if ‘life admin’ includes stuff like car maintenance, my Dad used to spend at least 1-2 hours most Sunday mornings under the bonnet, wiring plugs, replacing valves in TV sets, etc.
She can be a neurosurgeon
If she's doin' nothing' urgent
What I need's a temporary secretary
Laz that is fooked up. That sort of effort is for people in their 30s
.
There were certain sweet spots for some things
I have just had to apply for a electronic visa approval
40 years ago you had to go to the Embassy and queue which took most of the day or you had to pay someone to do it for you.
20 years ago it was visa on arrival – this was great
Now it is a pain in the arrse online form with multiple approvals and payment only worked on the third card I tried
I think the big change over the last few years is because a lot is linked to authorizations on your phone so even if you are a big swinging d1ck with a massive corner office you can’t outsource it to your PA/flunky. Although I have noticed increasingly there is a part of the forms asking “are you applying for someone else” and even years ago in the Sandpit at their DVLA there was a section saying “are you a driver”
The schools defintely have changed. The only interaction Iamlong Sr had with the school was paying the bill.
I’m just going to pop you on hold
Not exactly on point but I believe people spend about the same amount of time washing clothes as they did 50 years ago. People find ways to fill up their time with crap to spend their money e.g. useless 10+ handicappers probably spend hours trawling golf tech and buying it whereas you probably accepted you were shit, used second hand clubs and got on with it decades ago. People drive for an hour because they know there is Uzbek Reiki available in Nuneaton. People agonise over cash e.g. looking up their investments, shifting cash around for interest rates.
A good case in point is kids' non-school sport. I would say 1 hour plus a week is filtering social media semi-related bantz and lots more of it is doing transport because it is now accepted everyone has a car and can schlep however far at whatever time for training.
Did anyone buy an internet enabled washing machine? Until it puts the clothes in the machine I’m not interested…..
Someone with a 10 handicap is definitely not useless at golf ffs Banana man, have you ever held a club
It's his way of saying he's good...
I'm 14 and stuck in the good golfers think I'm shit and shit golfers think I'm rory
My mum was running a dairy farm 50 years ago and doing all the life admin because my dad had a full time day job and couldn't do admin to save his life. He died not knowing how to access his own bank account.
10 is not good it is average. They used to not let you on a golf course if you couldn't play to 24, so 24 is beginner level. Half way to 0 is then average. I would likely kick your arse and I play once or twice a year anyway.
The fact is if I gave you an iron from the 80s now it would go likely 85-90% as far as a modern club if you hit it out of the middle. decades ago people went to the golf club and tried to get better at hitting it out of the middle. Now they have more disposable income, the internet and cars they find ways to fill up their time trying to buy their way to being "better".
10 is obvs 'good'
5 would be v. good
How do you parents feel about the employment prospects of your children? Obvs you’ve had a far greater involvement in their education, sports, etc etc than previous generations. Yet to what end? Aside of obvs they’re your kids, you’d do anything for them, one assumes, etc etc, most people slogging away in law firms or the city generally are doing it for their kids and absolutely detest, not just not trust, anyone who isn’t.
Golf ratings here are akin to law firm appraisals. Time to get back to the real world rather than looking for "Your board minutes were AMAZING!!!". It reminds me of a squash ladder established at an old firm where the beginners and the Jahengir Khan's refused to be realistic so it was over a year of receiving and administering thrashings before it became anything resembling "fun".
It si quite hard to compare. Eg I have my 1980s diaries and quite a lot of lunch times I would be in a queue at the post office (as only allowed out at lunch time and it is busy then) to get car tax renewed. I moved all our paper home files into my own office in the firm so I could get that stuff done at lunch time not when I got home to the children. That definitely made it easier for me.
There used to be power bills once a quarter based on use in that quarter for me and my parents anyway and today most people pay monthly but by direct debit and many have a smart meter although I currently choose not to have one and I go out and read the meters every month for a bill based on use in that month.
My parents did quite a bit of taking us to private school and out of school activities although as today as with 2026 private schools a lot of it is done in school time or after school at the school. We walked to our piano lesson as the teacher was higher up our street in the 60s and 70s.
I have quite a few of my father's 1970s records so can do reasonable comparisons of time spent.
I thikn th ebottom line is that anyone with small children and working has hardly any time for anything including sleep and once you get to my age and only live with adult children everything is much less time consuming and life gets easier.
My parents suffered ratioining during and after WWII and my father could not take a new job for 2 or 3 years as he kept being called up for national service and then told no. I think there was a lot of admin due to rationing - your one egg a week kind of thing and ration card but that is 50s not 70s. 70 was more like candles, oil lamps, 3 day weeks, no petrol constant strikes and the to 98% rate of tax until the nation was saved (by a woman of course...)
10 is not good it is average
LOL at 10 being average, The average handicap is 15 for men but a very large number of recreational golfers dont even bother with handicaps and if they did the average would be much higher than that. It is often said half the people that play golf will fail to go around in under 100.
Banana os talking absolute bollox here
Something like 90% of golfers have never broken 80, which a 10 will definitely have done at some point.
An average golfer is probably a 28. A half decent is below 15 and. A good is below 10
24 is beginner level. Half way to 0 is then average.
You do not understand golf
start your own thread to talk about fvcking golf!
I seem to spend an ever increasing amount of time on my and (mostly tbf) my dad’s life admin…, need to streamline and simplify everything before I go nuts. and stop trying to save a few quid here and there- bigger picture blah..,
PS what’s this about? “most people slogging away in law firms or the city generally are doing it for their kids and absolutely detest, not just not trust, anyone who isn’t. ”??
Worrying about the score when playing golf is not zen.
The hegemony of family values bullace
Law firm appraisals are not flawed, if tou can do this job (and I can) you know what you are. Generally those who rise in law firms are there on merit, however much the weak may bleat. You need to be smart, yeah. But you need to be hard, yeah.
I’d say quite possibly
Like what?
Didn't mean to post.
Direct Debits didn't exist.
Bills were via cheque, which needed fooking posting
fook kids party today, ah will Wang an Amazon card over to parent.
Shopping for almost anything better online
Food shopping direct to house, as booze
Most "life admin* can be done on sofa or train
Definitely. Mostly because we have way less non-work time.
Imagine going home and that being you for the day
Well for a start 50 years ago it was a 5 day commute, now it's 1 or 2 unless you are insane, so that's probably 6 hours back. What additional admin is there that didn't exist 50 years ago when you go back home?
I suppose typically the wife did more back then, is that your point?
The amount of school and club activity that takes up parental time is exponentially more than when I were a lad, for starters.
No, parents in 2026 almost certainly handle more life admin tasks than in 1976.
Life admin (bureaucratic/paperwork tasks like bills, scheduling, forms, appointments, school communications, insurance, taxes, and compliance) has expanded significantly due to technology, regulations, expectations, and societal shifts, even as some chores became easier.
Key Differences in Life Admin Load
1976 Context (Simpler, Less Formalized):
2026 Context (More Layers, Digital + Regulatory):
Counterpoints and Nuances
In short, 1976 had more manual hassle but less volume, oversight, and formal bureaucracy. 2026 has efficiency tools but vastly more tasks, touchpoints, and expectations. Parents today juggle a more complex administrative web.
Yes.
It's an absolute PITA.
Fannies
Thank you for a very interesting question.
While I take the point about eg cheques/direct debits etc., that was it. There were fewer choices to make (providers/tariffs) and fewer things to monitor.
There is also more time to do things - using. Mobile whole travelling as pointed out above plus working from home allows far more personal admin
So overall, less. Perhaps people are just less organised. Yes, I think that is part of it
No.
To do anything in 1976 was an absolute balls-ache.
Train times? Need to visit the station.
Insurance? Need to visit high street insurance broker who may not even be open.
Pay or receive money? Write a cheque or -- or visit a bank to pay in cheque, or write out a cheque there for cash with a very long queue (very few cash machines then.And the banks also closed for lunch.
Buy anything - take a trip into town and visit a shop. Very little choice.
Book an overseas holiday? Drive into town and visit travel agent, take away an armful of brochures and then return a week later to book up.
Life nowadays is a dream of free time compared to then…
My parents did a load of those things by telephone or correspondence. Think my dad occasionally abused the office telex too to book hotels abroad.
I can remember my dad phoning the AA to get sent personalized route maps for long journeys.
Direct Line insurance started phone insurance in 1985, and it only really took off 5 years later with their famous red telephone on wheels advert.
But you could still phone your broker to then deal with the insurer.
As above - people have less non work time now. WFH may allow some modest clawback but most professional people I know are working til midnight at least a couple of evenings a week, including me now.
actual necessary life admin - I doubt it
fvcking around on line to little effect - definitely
threepwood makes the key point:
Definitely. Mostly because we have way less non-work time.
in 1985, I doubt most couples were both working full time. Now most couples do both work full time - at least in certain segments of the population.
also - and this is hard to prove - I have the feeling that schools make far more demands on parents than they used to. partly because of the ease of comms via WhatsApp. ie class teacher has liaison parent and they dream up all sorts of things that parents need to do (and not just the wretched dressing up for world book day !)
That sounds terrible Laz. Merkz point is correct
Yes because 50 years ago most professionals were men and their non working wives did most of their life admin
Internet admin is more convenient but I'm not sure it is faster.
I haven't used an insurance broker in years, since he retired in fact. The thread has reminded me how much easier that was, to just call him, and now I do it all myself. What a mug.
I used to do all mine in the office, and our general office chap, a fine man, would get my car tax for me at the Post Office, for example. No wife required.
Both my parents were working in 1976, and most of my mates parents were too.
And if ‘life admin’ includes stuff like car maintenance, my Dad used to spend at least 1-2 hours most Sunday mornings under the bonnet, wiring plugs, replacing valves in TV sets, etc.
She can be a neurosurgeon
If she's doin' nothing' urgent
What I need's a temporary secretary
Laz that is fooked up. That sort of effort is for people in their 30s
.
There were certain sweet spots for some things
I have just had to apply for a electronic visa approval
40 years ago you had to go to the Embassy and queue which took most of the day or you had to pay someone to do it for you.
20 years ago it was visa on arrival – this was great
Now it is a pain in the arrse online form with multiple approvals and payment only worked on the third card I tried
I think the big change over the last few years is because a lot is linked to authorizations on your phone so even if you are a big swinging d1ck with a massive corner office you can’t outsource it to your PA/flunky. Although I have noticed increasingly there is a part of the forms asking “are you applying for someone else” and even years ago in the Sandpit at their DVLA there was a section saying “are you a driver”
The schools defintely have changed. The only interaction Iamlong Sr had with the school was paying the bill.
I’m just going to pop you on hold
Not exactly on point but I believe people spend about the same amount of time washing clothes as they did 50 years ago. People find ways to fill up their time with crap to spend their money e.g. useless 10+ handicappers probably spend hours trawling golf tech and buying it whereas you probably accepted you were shit, used second hand clubs and got on with it decades ago. People drive for an hour because they know there is Uzbek Reiki available in Nuneaton. People agonise over cash e.g. looking up their investments, shifting cash around for interest rates.
A good case in point is kids' non-school sport. I would say 1 hour plus a week is filtering social media semi-related bantz and lots more of it is doing transport because it is now accepted everyone has a car and can schlep however far at whatever time for training.
Did anyone buy an internet enabled washing machine? Until it puts the clothes in the machine I’m not interested…..
Someone with a 10 handicap is definitely not useless at golf ffs Banana man, have you ever held a club
It's his way of saying he's good...
I'm 14 and stuck in the good golfers think I'm shit and shit golfers think I'm rory
My mum was running a dairy farm 50 years ago and doing all the life admin because my dad had a full time day job and couldn't do admin to save his life. He died not knowing how to access his own bank account.
10 is not good it is average. They used to not let you on a golf course if you couldn't play to 24, so 24 is beginner level. Half way to 0 is then average. I would likely kick your arse and I play once or twice a year anyway.
The fact is if I gave you an iron from the 80s now it would go likely 85-90% as far as a modern club if you hit it out of the middle. decades ago people went to the golf club and tried to get better at hitting it out of the middle. Now they have more disposable income, the internet and cars they find ways to fill up their time trying to buy their way to being "better".
10 is obvs 'good'
5 would be v. good
How do you parents feel about the employment prospects of your children? Obvs you’ve had a far greater involvement in their education, sports, etc etc than previous generations. Yet to what end? Aside of obvs they’re your kids, you’d do anything for them, one assumes, etc etc, most people slogging away in law firms or the city generally are doing it for their kids and absolutely detest, not just not trust, anyone who isn’t.
Golf ratings here are akin to law firm appraisals. Time to get back to the real world rather than looking for "Your board minutes were AMAZING!!!". It reminds me of a squash ladder established at an old firm where the beginners and the Jahengir Khan's refused to be realistic so it was over a year of receiving and administering thrashings before it became anything resembling "fun".
It si quite hard to compare. Eg I have my 1980s diaries and quite a lot of lunch times I would be in a queue at the post office (as only allowed out at lunch time and it is busy then) to get car tax renewed. I moved all our paper home files into my own office in the firm so I could get that stuff done at lunch time not when I got home to the children. That definitely made it easier for me.
There used to be power bills once a quarter based on use in that quarter for me and my parents anyway and today most people pay monthly but by direct debit and many have a smart meter although I currently choose not to have one and I go out and read the meters every month for a bill based on use in that month.
My parents did quite a bit of taking us to private school and out of school activities although as today as with 2026 private schools a lot of it is done in school time or after school at the school. We walked to our piano lesson as the teacher was higher up our street in the 60s and 70s.
I have quite a few of my father's 1970s records so can do reasonable comparisons of time spent.
I thikn th ebottom line is that anyone with small children and working has hardly any time for anything including sleep and once you get to my age and only live with adult children everything is much less time consuming and life gets easier.
My parents suffered ratioining during and after WWII and my father could not take a new job for 2 or 3 years as he kept being called up for national service and then told no. I think there was a lot of admin due to rationing - your one egg a week kind of thing and ration card but that is 50s not 70s. 70 was more like candles, oil lamps, 3 day weeks, no petrol constant strikes and the to 98% rate of tax until the nation was saved (by a woman of course...)
10 is not good it is average
LOL at 10 being average, The average handicap is 15 for men but a very large number of recreational golfers dont even bother with handicaps and if they did the average would be much higher than that. It is often said half the people that play golf will fail to go around in under 100.
Banana os talking absolute bollox here
Something like 90% of golfers have never broken 80, which a 10 will definitely have done at some point.
An average golfer is probably a 28. A half decent is below 15 and. A good is below 10
You do not understand golf
start your own thread to talk about fvcking golf!
I seem to spend an ever increasing amount of time on my and (mostly tbf) my dad’s life admin…, need to streamline and simplify everything before I go nuts. and stop trying to save a few quid here and there- bigger picture blah..,
PS what’s this about? “most people slogging away in law firms or the city generally are doing it for their kids and absolutely detest, not just not trust, anyone who isn’t. ”??
Worrying about the score when playing golf is not zen.
The hegemony of family values bullace
Law firm appraisals are not flawed, if tou can do this job (and I can) you know what you are. Generally those who rise in law firms are there on merit, however much the weak may bleat. You need to be smart, yeah. But you need to be hard, yeah.
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