Poll: Many Americans Weary After Weekends

(CBS)  In the "Where America Stands" series, CBS News and our print partner, USA Today, are looking at a broad spectrum of issues facing this country in the new decade. Today, we hear about the state of the weekend..

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More than half of Americans don't feel rested or relaxed at the end of the weekend, according to a new CBS News poll.

Sixty-three percent of those surveyed say they ask themselves "Where did the weekend go?" while only 34 percent say they feel relaxed and ready for Monday morning. Working Americans and parents of children under age 18 are even less likely to feel rested and relaxed at the end of a weekend.

While the weekends fly by for many, fewer than half (42 percent) of working Americans say they would give up a day's pay per week in exchange for a longer weekend to spend more time with family and friends. Fifty-three percent of Americans said they would rather keep their current hours and pay even it means less time with family.

Individuals at lower income levels are more unwilling (or perhaps less able) to give up a day of work, while women are more likely than men to sacrifice a day's pay for more time with their family.

Looking ahead, most Americans don't expect their relaxation time to increase in the coming decade. Of those surveyed, 39 percent say that in the next 10 years, Americans will be spending more hours working, while just one in 10 expect to have more leisure time. Half say the amount of hours they work will remain the same.

In addition, over six in 10 married Americans say they are satisfied with the amount of time they spend alone with their spouse on a typical weekend. However, nearly a third admit they don't get enough "alone time" with their husband or wife. Among parents of children under 18, this number rises to 51 percent.

(CBS)

When not alone with a spouse, Americans are also helping their children have fun-filled weekends. About half of parents with kids under 18 say they spend at least some time over the weekend bringing their children to and from activities such as sports, lessons, and hobbies, including a quarter who say they spend a lot of time doing this. The amount of time spent taking kids to and from various activities increases among parents of children between the ages of 9 and 17.

But despite the hectic schedules of most families, three in four Americans share most of their meals together on the weekends. Even those who reported spending a lot of time shuttling their children to and from activities say they eat most of their weekend meals together as a family.

More results from the poll:

• Four in 10 married Americans say they spend just as much weekend time alone with their spouse as their parents did when they were the same age. Almost as many - 36 percent - say they actually spend more time alone with their spouse than their parents did.

• When asked what their children like to do most on the weekends, go out and play was the top answer provided by parents (16 percent), followed by hanging out with friends (12 percent) and playing sports (11 percent). Other activities included playing video games, bike riding and going to the movies.

See More Stories and Videos from: Where America Stands
Read the Complete Poll

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This poll was conducted among a random sample of 1,048 adults nationwide, interviewed by telephone December 17-22, 2009. Phone numbers were dialed from random digit dial samples of both standard land-line and cell phones. The error due to sampling for results based on the entire sample could be plus or minus three percentage points. The error for subgroups is higher.

This poll release conforms to the Standards of Disclosure of the National Council on Public Polls.

[jlclancy]

CBS should better take care of Erica Hill!

[Lerianis4]

Weekends are no more or less 'busy' today than they were 100 years ago..... what is the reason why so many of these people are having problems with not being rested after a weekend?

[duffyn]

How the h does somebody read this article and make a rank on Obama will stick his nose in cuz he likes to control everything. People wake up and appreciate this man. He does not want to control everything. They hated bailing out wall street but guess what years of no one controlling the banks left him no choice. If they had not the mess you see now would be much much worse. More regulation on banks - yes! Why DID they need a bail out?? Do the health in companies need some controlling? Yes obviously when they cut people off in the middle of their cancer treatment. Obama is a miracle - you want more of like the 8 years before Obama??? By every measure we are worse off. You gotta be stupid, insane, or filthy rich. Or some kind of blin pub party loyalist!

[duffyn]

Huh???? We go back to work tired monday morning cuz we been play'n so hard all weekend. If somebody is not rested up in two days it's cuz they have not been resting. Good god some of these articles.... 'member news jazzes it up and loves to create controversy so we will keep watching the news on TV or going to the news websites.

[Lerianis4]

Hit the nail on the head. A lot of people are tired come Monday because they have been playing with their children, friends, etc. instead of sitting on their butts getting fat.

[formrusmcsgt]

I often see parents running themselves ragged as slaves to their children. Soccer, ballet, piano, Karate, on and on and on.

Obviously, many choose to spoil their children and drain themselves in the process.

Stupid is as stupid does.

[PR_in_Alabama]

Kids today are so spoiled, their ambition is killed...When time comes to make corrections, is tooo Late.

[Lerianis4]

No, kids today are NOT spoiled, Pr_in_Alabama. They are no more, and no less, 'spoiled' than children 100 years ago. I'm betting that you are a child-hater who dislikes all children, doesn't have any, and never will have any.

If you did, you would realize that 99% of children who are called 'spoiled' aren't! It's just other people being jealous that THEIR PARENTS didn't treat them that well when they were children, and being jealous of those children I refer to.

[rwsmith29456]

Who is going to remember what this 'poll' said next week? CBS "NEWS poll"??? That's a presumptuous description.

[jbright9]

Like most women, my weekends involve cleaning my home, laundry, errands etc. I have very little down time and really feel like my weekends are like working at a second job. I have done this for years and wouldn't give up working outside the home for anything. I am one of those lucky people who loves every aspect of their job.

[nowhiningallowed]

As long as people put up with over extending themselves personally and professionally, the stressed out factor will continue. Parents carting kids to everything and anything to keep them active is an excuse to not wanting to spend one on one time with them and to further encourage kids to find creative ways to use up their time without clubs, sports, dance, TV or computers. People are overly active because they're missing something in their lives and fill the void with inane time consuming activities.

[Lerianis4]

nowhiningallowed, what you are saying is basically an UNJUST indictment of our society and the way that it has evolved..... and basically, no one is going to listen to you because you sound like someone who 'pines' for the good old days of the 1700's.

Get real, get sane, and realize that children's lives today, by and large, are the SAME and NO MORE busy than they were 50+ years ago. No more busy, no less busy.

Oh, and no, people who are 'overly active' (which it is only YOU saying that they are, which is probably a bit of JEALOUSY) are not missing anything in their lives.

[Henri_Rochard]

I have a computer job and, hence, a good amount of weekend work.

However, after a good weekend of hiking, climbing, bicycling, motorcycling, skiing, etc., etc., sometimes I'm just glad to go to Monday morning to get to relax all week... NOT !!!

[Skruffy1]

The bright side is that with more and more people out of a job, there are that many fewer Americans who can say this. Ah... the Endless Weekend...