记得《蜗居》里面海萍有段台词，说的是每天一睁眼就想着要还多少房贷、孩子上学要多少钱，电话费要交多少… 好像我们每天上班就是为了还债，哪儿还有心思出去游山玩水，享受生活啊。我们今天要说的，就是这类家庭的英文名字，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，无暇享受生活，简称“奈特尔”）指夫妻为高收入全职人员、家中又有孩子需要照顾的家庭。

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.

这样的家庭中，父母全职工作，收入也不少，但无法同时兼顾工作职责和家庭生活。很多家庭都是有钱却没时间享受生活。这些压力重重的“奈特尔（NETTEL）”父母永远都在排日程、列计划，记录着要怎样完成第二天的事务。

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，基于某种奇怪的逻辑，这些父母似乎很享受这种日程堆积的状态。因为在崇尚物质第一的世界里，一对夫妇调节和掌控财务及家庭需求的能力就能够证明他们超级“强者”的地位。

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（中国日报网英语点津 Helen 编辑）

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