Overwhelmed

Work, Love, and Play When No One Has the Time

By: Brigid Schulte

Narrated by: Tavia Gilbert

Can working parents in America - or anywhere - ever find true leisure time?

According to the Leisure Studies Department at the University of Iowa, true leisure is “that place in which we realize our humanity.” If that’s true, argues Brigid Schulte, then we're doing dangerously little realizing of our humanity. In Overwhelmed, Schulte, a staff writer for The Washington Post, asks: Are our brains, our partners, our culture, and our bosses making it impossible for us to experience anything but “contaminated time”?

Schulte first asked this question in a 2010 feature for The Washington Post Magazine: “How did researchers compile this statistic that said we were rolling in leisure - over four hours a day? Did any of us feel that we actually had downtime? Was there anything useful in their research - anything we could do?”

Overwhelmed is a map of the stresses that have ripped our leisure to shreds, and a look at how to put the pieces back together. Schulte speaks to neuroscientists, sociologists, and hundreds of working parents to tease out the factors contributing to our collective sense of being overwhelmed, seeking insights, answers, and inspiration. She investigates progressive offices trying to invent a new kind of workplace; she travels across Europe to get a sense of how other countries accommodate working parents; she finds younger couples who claim to have figured out an ideal division of chores, childcare, and meaningful paid work. Overwhelmed is the story of what she found out.

©2014 Brigid Schulte (P)2014 Audible, Inc., all rights reserved. Published by Brilliance Audio. Produced by arrangement with Farrar, Straus and Giroux, LLC.

Reassuring and moderately helpful

I felt this book gave good insight into alternatives for our overwhelming lifestyles, but like most self help, making this changes is much harder. I did like the interviews with the Danish families.

Interesting ideas

This books presenting interesting concepts of time management from various industries and countries. This book is geared more towards women and mothers especially, but men with the same feelings of being overwhelmed may benefit as well.

Essential Reading for Creating a Better Future

What did you love best about Overwhelmed?

It spoke to my own struggles over the last 50 years of being a woman in America: as a person who understood gender inequality in kindergarten, as a wife, mother, employee, entrepreneur and political activist. Unless you've been living under a rock, this book - Brigid Schulte's reporting - touches on your own life and those around you.

What was the most compelling aspect of this narrative?

How intensely real her experiences are. I could feel her frustration, anger and sense of being overwhelmed because I have lived that experience. We accept as immutable the culture we live in and assume it's "the best" because Americans see our lifestyle and our country as "exceptional." In many of quality of life factors, we lag well behind other countries. We don't look around seeking ways to improve how we live. At this point in my life, it's about improving it for my 3 twenty-something children. I want to leave a different legacy behind - one where my son and daughters have more choices and options to live the lives they want to live.

Which character – as performed by Tavia Gilbert – was your favorite?

She brings a believable voice to that of the author. By the end of the book, you feel you have bonded with Brigid - you have shared her journey and what it means to try and having a meaningful life off the hamster wheel people enjoy complaining about.

If you could give Overwhelmed a new subtitle, what would it be?

Life doesn't have to be this way.

Any additional comments?

This is one of the most important books you can read this year. Things will not change or improve for our children and grandchildren if those of us at the top of the Boomer foodchain don't recognize we have a responsibility to change the dynamics of the workplace, our schools, our social structures and our communities. We do not have to be OVERWHELMED to prove we are productive and have value to the world.

insightful

I loved the way the author inspired me to value time and to let go of the overwhelm. I was able to let go some of the busyness just by listening to how many others have experienced overwhelm and time.

Great book about working mother's experience !

if you are working mother or a stay at home mother, this is a must read. I love how she goes around the world to see what other cultures do with parental leave, flexible working schedule, children care at home. what does stress do our brain? This book covers so many subjects in details without being overwhelming.

still relevant

This book needs a revision with regard to tech and post pandemic changes. However, I found it most useful to listen to while (ironically) multitasking (working). Most importantly, I learned that I am not alone. that there's nothing wrong with me. that my dissatisfaction is built in to the condition of my circumstances and is not related to me or the people around me. I might otherwise know this if I had close friends but I don't have time for that because I'm too busy being a successful mom and business owner and life partner. this book and the information in it was presented very succinctly and thoroughly. I found it very useful and affirming. In concluding the book, I actually feel much better about myself and my level of success.

I found it best to listen at 1.2 speed.

An intelligent look at modern Us culture

If you could sum up Overwhelmed in three words, what would they be?

An insightful book on the frantic and non-thinking, robotic behavior of so many in this culture. The travels and insights into other countries was enlightening and exciting.

Who was your favorite character and why?

This is a nonfiction book. There is no favorite character. The author is the character, if one must use such a term for a nonfiction book.

Which scene was your favorite?

Wrong question for a nonfiction book. As you push, I'd say the time in Copenhagen and Norway.

What’s the most interesting tidbit you’ve picked up from this book?

Reinforced my belief that americans do not understand leisure and over value "work."

Any additional comments?

Very well planned book as a look upon this culture of move, fast, work, work. The author' suse of prose was really good, too. I was engaged from beginning to end.

Great read not just for mommies but for all parents

I bought this book on a whim during a 4.95 sale. Once I started listening I couldn't stop. Many moments brought tears to my eyes and made me realize we are not alone in our struggles.

great read

loved it. inspirational and gave me a belly laugh sometimes. narrator did well. highly recommended for everyone

Finally!

I feel like she described my life, the overwhelming urge to do it all and be it all to everyone but myself. Multitasking myself into a stupor of exhaustion, only to realize I didn't do enough.

We live in a time that "busy" is what we try to achieve whether we know it or not. The stigma around "leisure time especially for women. She covers it all!!! I feel so reassured, like I'm not the only one failing at perfection.