JessicaRulestheUniverse.com

Roger Federer on the tram in Lisbon with kids. Photo from www.rogerfederer.com. I want that shirt. Anyone reading this in Estoril?

* * * * *

This is for our friend Tennis Mike the stress bunny. Thanks to Ricky for the alert and the Germans for having a word for everything.

The Germans have always been good at coming up with words for those emotions we all feel but don’t have a name for: schadenfreude, for example, or angst. “Freizeitstresse” is the latest, a term that literally translates as “free-time stress”.

Millions of us, apparently, worry about whether we spend our spare time wisely. A consequence of feeling that we have so little of it is that we agonise over what we do with our precious, unscheduled hours. Do you feel that you have to achieve something even in your leisure time? On holiday, does simply doing nothing make you feel uncomfortable and twitchy? Have you ever spoilt your Saturday afternoon by worrying about whether you should be doing something imaginative with the kids or at a yoga class by yourself while you’re pounding the supermarket aisles? Freizeitstresse could be your problem.. . .Read the full article at the Times Online.