記得《蝸居》里面海萍有段臺詞，說的是每天一睜眼就想著要還多少房貸、孩子上學要多少錢，電話費要交多少… 好像我們每天上班就是為了還債，哪兒還有心思出去游山玩水，享受生活啊。我們今天要說的，就是這類家庭的英文名字，NETTEL。

Not Enough Time To Enjoy Life, or NETTEL, refers to the rising pool of households headed by two high-income-earning, full-time-working parents with dependent children.

NETTEL（Not Enough Time To Enjoy Life，無暇享受生活，簡稱“奈特爾”）指夫妻為高收入全職人員、家中又有孩子需要照顧的家庭。

Here are two parents working full-time earning lots of money but struggling to balance the commitments that come with a demanding job and an even more demanding family life. In many families it's a case of got enough money but hasn’t got enough time to enjoy life. These stressed-out Nettel parents are forever scheduling, scheming and diarising about how to execute the next day's events.

這樣的家庭中，父母全職工作，收入也不少，但無法同時兼顧工作職責和家庭生活。很多家庭都是有錢卻沒時間享受生活。這些壓力重重的“奈特爾（NETTEL）”父母永遠都在排日程、列計劃，記錄著要怎樣完成第二天的事務。

And, by some bizarre twist of logic, many of these parents seem to revel in the scheduling frenzy. In a materialistic go-getter world, a couple's ability to juggle and to control life's commercial and familial demands merely confirms their superior "alpha" status.

而且，基于某種奇怪的邏輯，這些父母似乎很享受這種日程堆積的狀態。因為在崇尚物質第一的世界里，一對夫婦調節和掌控財務及家庭需求的能力就能夠證明他們超級“強者”的地位。

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（中國日報網英語點津 Helen 編輯）

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