Simply put – ;) – for me, it’s more of a question of time than money. If I have the time to play it, a game with great replay value (like Skyrim or Final Fantasy) is worth the price.

Like Matt – you mentioned an all day trip with girlfriend and kids on Saturday – which sounds like a great fun weekend activity. But how do you fit in a hobby with all the hands-on time children need during the week? Getting them ready for school, baths, homework, clean school stuff, kids lessons and activities take time too – and if you’re supervising all those things, the time isn’t readily available to do the things you might enjoy more.

My girlfriend’s kids live at her house. I’m not supervising any of those things. If we get married or if we decide to have them all move in with me, I’ll have to make some changes.

I would say that your involvement with your church, as well as your community volunteer time (I certainly counted mine!) and your big dogs are hobbies as well. So, you have hobbies – they’re just different than the hobbies you used to have.

Amanda – your comments about videogames, for example, were really interesting to me. Since I don’t play them, I do tend to think of them as being for children, and do not understand adults who play them. That view is probably colored by the fact that World of Warcraft and Call of Duty seem to be the two favorites among my (all male) offspring, and both leave me completely cold. Perhaps I would enjoy other types of games.

Also, for the comments on 4-5 hours a week being spent on hobbies by various other readers, that was also an eyeopener for me. Fulltime work, growing children, church, school and community volunteer time and big dogs who need two daily walks seem to eat up almost all of my time, and hobbies like reading and sewing went by the wayside when I brought the first of four babies home 22 years ago. Maybe I should reframe things, and consider my life my hobby!

Or are other people just more efficient with their time than I am? Like Matt – you mentioned an all day trip with girlfriend and kids on Saturday – which sounds like a great fun weekend activity. But how do you fit in a hobby with all the hands-on time children need during the week? Getting them ready for school, baths, homework, clean school stuff, kids lessons and activities take time too – and if you’re supervising all those things, the time isn’t readily available to do the things you might enjoy more. (And if you didn’t stay up with the laundry all week, then Saturday sometimes gets eaten up with that too, along with food shopping and other errands).

How do so many other readers organize their time so much better than I do?

So in order to get around your dislike of hobbies, Cathleen, someone just needs to make their hobby related to a goal.

OK.

My goal it to beat every video game I own.

Now I can play 40 hrs a week and it’s not wasted time.

I had the same problem you describe – I don’t like to exercise just to exercise, and I simply will not do it regularly. The solution for me was to adopt some physical hobbies that are fun and do those.

That is, I go to the gym 3-4 times a week, but I never get on a weight machine, a stationary bike, treadmill, or any of that. Instead, I go to the rock climbing section and climb, or I go to the aerobics room and dance with my partner. I also go out dancing at ballroom studios and clubs, or go rock climbing or caving outdoors. I don’t even like to hike unless I’m headed to a cave or crag.

So… um… don’t exercise. Just do fun things that happen to be exercise.

My apologies, cathleen.

I am keenly aware (I work in Silicon Valley)
My opinion is just that. 4-5 hours of a hobby each week would be excessive to me if other items of importance or goals are not being accomplished.
4-5 hours of movies would be the same to me.
4-5 hours of reading entertainment mags would be the same to me.
4-5 hours of sitting in front of a TV ditto.

Your opinion of how much time is excessive seems not to hinge so much on whether the person is engaging in a hobby, but rather how much you approve of the hobby. TV/movies, video games, and even some kinds of reading are not cathleen-approved.

I haven’t touched a video game console of any sort for quite some time, but I watch quite a bit more than 5 hours of movies/TV per week, so I guess that’s a non-approved ‘hobby’. (Except I really don’t consider it a hobby – watching TV is R&R in my opinion)

For the 2 people out there who might be interested, my hobbies and the approximate time I spent on them last week are:

Dancing: 13 hours – including 2 hours of practice with my dance partner, and 3 hours hosting my organization’s monthly dance (just so you know, it was an unusual week)

Volunteering for a local dance club: 5 hours – this includes setting up before the dance I hosted, as well as cleaning up afterword. It also includes other related tasks such as preparing food for the event, picking up decorations, and writing the monthly newsletter.

Rock Climbing: 15 hours includes two 2-hour sessions in the climbing gym and an all-day Saturday trip with my gf and her kids to climb outdoors, picnic, and hike.

Caving/Cave Rescue: Took a back door to climbing and my dance responsibilities last week, but typically I would spend 5 or more hours on this hobby (with a decrease in the others, of course)

Despite all that, I still managed to spend more than 5 hours in front of the TV, resting sore legs, shoulders, hands and feet. It doesn’t seem excessive, and, if I decided I had to make a lifestyle change and had to cut back, it wouldn’t be on the relaxation I get when lying down on the couch after a hard evening ‘playing’ at my more vigorous hobbies.

Even if there are other hobbies that also take their own time, I just don’t think 4-5 hours a week is excessive for a single hobby. I actually don’t think it’s all that much time at all.

I couldn’t care less what *anyone* does in their spare time. But to say 4-5 hours is not excessive for ONE hobby, when presumably there are other hobbies as well, when exercising gets ” fifteen minutes to half an hour each day” (TSD 12/27/11) to me that’s excessive.

YMMV

Sometimes that’s not possible for people (particularly those working multiple jobs)- but they SHOULD have it.