Outsourcing our lives

As we get busier and busier, we are spending more and more cash on hiring people to do mundane things. I am always telling my friends that I need an assistant to deal with my nonsense on a regular basis. We continue to take on more and more, extending our work hours and social obligations. When do we have time to do laundry? mail thank you cards? schedule appts? pick up dry cleaning? The list goes on and on. Technology was supposed to make our lives easier..but has it? How did our parents do all of this and make it look so easy? My parents both worked, raised two children, had a dog, social obligations, a big extended family to visit, skiing, swimming and music lessons to shuttle us to AND they did it all with no help. I never had a nanny, a grandma to watch me or a cleaning lady. They didnt have blackberrys or laptops to email friends. They saw people face to face and chatted on the phone with friends all the time. Sure they were busy and tired..but I never saw them stressed out. I guess we do work longer hours than our parents did as we are always expected to be "on call" answering our blackberrys during evenings and weekends. But still..an email here or a call there shouldn't cause us to be so far behind on daily tasks..but we are. We are now hiring people to not just watch our kids, mow our lawns or clean our houses. People are now hiring glorified errand boys to do their bidding. Its not unusual now for a family to have a cleaning lady, nanny/babysitter, dog walker and lawn care worker. Some households add chauffeur, cook or assistant to the list. We pay people to cut our hair, paint our nails, wash our dogs, make our meals,  drive our kids..leaving us with more free time right? If hiring people so we can have "less" to do and more "time" isnt working..then either we suck at time management or are too busy and need to trim the fat out of our lives. If you are too busy for your friends and family..then you are TOO busy. Starting saying NO or do you need to hire someone to do that for you?