I can't help with obligations - although I sympathize mightily. For everything else that isn't an absolute obligation:

Just say no!

It doesn't matter whether or not the neighbors think I "have time", it's MY time, not theirs, and only I have the right to decide how it should be spent. Once I realized that was true, my stress level dropped precipitously.

Peer pressure can be awfully insistent, but there is no law demanding that we cave in to it. There is no guarantee that I won't be smooshed by a meteor tomorrow, so why waste today doing what the anonymous "they" want rather than what *I* want with my time?!

Still having a job means I am really never asked. Nice. And I get paid for the work rather than get a "thank you." Even nicer.

PB, is this the only thing you're "obliged" to do each week?
Two to three hours each week? You don't say what it is, but that doesn't seem a huge imposition on your time to me, but if you hate it I think you ought to just say no, that you don't want to give that much time to ____________ (fill in the blank). That you've reached a time in your life when you've decided only to do things that you really want to with your time.

When I retired I thought I would have all the time in the world. Boy was I wrong. I have never been so busy in my life and now am looking for a new job. Crazy or what? Steve in Baltimore County

Sheila, that's the problem. I really don't have a single thing that I feel an obligation to do. Nothing. I don't even have to keep house or cook meals. I have reached that point in life when I don't have to do a darn thing that I don't want to.

And this is just a couple of hours and it's one of those things that no one else likes to do either. So if I don't do it, someone else, who most likely will have more to do than I, will have to.

I'm just griping about not having anything to do, that's what is the pits! That's one of the down sides of the Golden Years ...not about having an obligation to do something. There is a BIG difference.

But Hey! I got a free cup of coffee!!!

Well, I have grown old - gracefully or not is a matter of opinion
I don't *have to* do anything, but I choose to have committments to my animals and my garden and myself that I wish to honor.
GS once said "Oma, time is something you have plenty of" - hah! For one thing, my time in this life is winding down and what's left is precious to me and I do not wish to squander it on things that have no meaning to me, I want to savor every moment in a way that means something to me.
Indeed, time goes by so fast, I can't keep up with myself, "killing time" is not a concept in my life. Even sitting under a tree and thinking is important

Amen! Time is precious and one should learn this earlier in life, as opposed to later. Definately learn it, even if it is later. Kids think older people have plenty of money as well. I have seen that picture with an old lady who used to live near my mother. Her g'kids were always hitting grandma up for something, and of course she loved giving it to them. Problem was she qualified for food stamps and my folks who were not spring chickens used to go over to her house to repair things and mow lawns, so she wouldn't have to spend what had to do her the rest of her life on those expenses.

I am not retired per se, but semi I guess. I have wound down my business to just over a bedlam level. I am also caregiving my elderly mother, more for companionship than necessity. That gives me just a few hours a day to do my own obligations. I won't give up my gardens, chickens, orchard, cooking or anything else what brings me particular pleasure. I just signed up for a university class, and started a quilt I'd wanted to make most of my life. IOW time is very, very precious and I try to use it like I do my money. How can I get the most use out of it, and enjoy it to the max?

What Steve said.

LOL! Once I quit working I thought I'd have all teh time in the world. But now I usually ponder "How did I do everything I did when I was working?" It took me q while to unwind from the daily grind, but once I did, it 's become almost impossible to gear up for anything, even things I really enjoy.

My favorite thing to tell someone was when my old employer last year was looking for retirees to work strike duty. LOL! I told them it interfered with my afternoon nap.

Old employees to work strike duty? rofl. OMG. Tell me it wasn't one of those companies who took their highest seniority people and made them redundant and offered them early retirements so they could fill the positions with newbies who would work for less or get fewer bennies.