The former president of Uruguay, José Mujica, has stated that “the freedom to live is necessary and the time to be free”. The time we recognize so much, that we sometimes talk about free time. But if we start thinking, are we really free in our free time? Do they own the name we have applied to these sections?

It is known that today many parents prioritize the time we want to spend with our sons and daughters: we try to adapt the schedule in everyday life, we help the extra-schoolchildren, if possible we help them go to school and we want to be there when they leave... Apparently, in general, children and young people tend to be longer with their parents. It is obvious that the time we spend on education with our children is fundamental; that it is essential that we live with them on a daily basis and serve as an example if they want their lives to be properly summarized. I think we are clear that the time we spend on our children is essential. I think we have made progress in the last few decades. However, another thing is the quality of our time. The standard of living has probably improved, but not the quality of life. Today it seems that you have to run and run all the daily activities, the more activities you do the better. We live at great speed. I would say that the children themselves, from getting up early in the morning until they go to bed, live like this; that the model they receive is not much better than a few years ago.

This is no small matter and we must add to it the accession to the new technologies today. A few weeks ago, a friend told me that he decided to take TV out of his house to really take advantage of the time spent with his daughters. After a few weeks, he told me that the decision was perfect, that once the children did, they took much better advantage of the time they spent together. This gave me a thought: how much have we devoted since the time we have to the devices and devices that we like so much? How many children? Don't ditxos equipment take away quality time? Is that time we have to be with our children not going to shrink us, without realizing it?

It comes to my memory, on the other hand, when I used to go to eat at my grandparents' house, how I sat next to them, no television, no cell phone, at a time when I just offered to talk. I remember how I enjoyed the food in a perfect company, attentive to the stories, anecdotes and advice of my grandfather. They, at least the grandparents, had less time to be with family members, but the time they offered us was real, dedicated to us and ourselves, without hurts, wanting to speak.

Life has changed a lot in recent decades. Leisure and domestic customs have changed a lot. I often think that the number of obligations we pass on to children and the speed we live in day to day are the best models. It is known that children learn what they see. From a young age they see us living in a hurry; from a young age they live in a hurry. Not little, and part of the little time we have, we look at the devices, taking advantage of our time, dissipating irreversible moments that we can offer to those around us.

Ioritz Gonzalez Lertxundi, professor