Me Time?

I seem to have heard this word a lot recently. Long ago, when I had my first baby I did'nt hear it at all.
What is 'me time'?
It appears to be our right to have a certain ammount of time that is now devoted to us , alone.
I have been told by some people this is precisley why they do not have larger families, because they need this time.
I wonder quite where it comes from? I was rather under the impression when I had my first baby that this time I had to myself was a thing of the past, not that I had ever had much anyway, as I was always a busy child and teenager.
I cherished my first child and loved every minuate I spent with her.I did not morn the loss of this time, nor miss it at all, and so as our family expanded so my time just had to be a bit better managed.
Sometimes, people have offered to look after the children in order to give me some of this 'me time'.I once took a friend up on this, but returned home early because I missed the children so much. Some people may find this rather sad,that I could not occupy myself for that long, not really, I just preferred being with my kids.Each summer, as a Team Leader for a leading exam board I have to go to London for three days.Thankfully the days are long and exhausting with very little time to think, but then at 5pm we finnish and go our separate ways.The first night is usually okay as I book a theatre visit or see friends , but returning to an empty hotel room is always hard.The second day is tougher and by the third I chase from my conference onto the first train home!So much for spneding time with 'me' I just long for my children and husband.
I wonder how much 'Me time' my grandmothers got? One was a miners wife who worked hard at home to make ends meet, the other ran the local sweet shop, making the sweets and ice creams from scratch.

As Susie returned from Uganda and showed us all her photos, I pondered if many of the women on them actually considered 'Me time' of the sligtest importance at all.
I think, as a society we have become very self centered. Magazines are full of celebrities who are self obsessed and we are lured into thinking this is the norm, and feeling condemmned if we do not fit this. One such example is the obsession to see who can be the thinnest the quickest after giving birth (a competion I do not stand an earthly chance of winning).These women, I have concluded, in order to achieve the amazing figures they do, must spend very little time with their new babies.Okay so I moan about my weight, but given the choice whats a few extra stone between friends?
We observed this all the time when we lived overseas.It made me quite nauseous to return each Christmas and watch in horror at the huge food check out ques and the fuss everyone made if they did not manage to get the ' in' toy for their child.I returned to the simplicity and queitness of Eastern Europe and breathed a sigh of releif!
Because of the age ranges that exist in our house, we can often be up from 7am untill 1am the following morning! this leaves little time theoretically for me. I sometimes get frustrated that I can't get on with a project or finnish a book, but within the day there are always small slots where some peace and quiet can be had.

So, perhaps it is not the fact that ' me time' in itself is wrong, but more what we class as this time.'Me time' can be cooking, if that is what we enjoy.It could be hugging babies and reading stories which gives me personally as much pleasure as anytime by myself.Perhaps it could be enjoying some music on my ipod whislt doing a job, or chatting to my children about their day.
What do you think?