Even notoriously tidy Marie Kondo has spoken out regarding the reality of the mental load and its ability to impact mothers' wellbeing. The Netflix star admits that after giving birth to her third child, life has become a lot messier. Despite her successful business and the best of intentions, she understands that life simply isn't perfect - something we all must learn to accept.
Marie opened up on this in her latest book, “Marie Kondo’s Kurashi at Home: How to Organise Your Space and Achieve Your Ideal Life,” where she shares her advice on corralling the chaos of everyday responsibilities. In it, she writes about how looking after a mother’s mental load and making space for love and connection is far more important than perfect organisation and tidiness around the home.
Why we need to share the mental load
Parenthood can be an incredibly rewarding, life-changing endeavour - but it is a given that raising children comes along with a significant mental load, involving a large chunk of life admin. Modern day parents are all too familiar with the reality of constant planning and errand running, to the point that society has come to accept this as a normal burden to bear.
While busyness is an innate part of life, statistics show that one parent, more often than not ‘the mother’ (in two parent, heterosexual partnerships) carries the majority of the mental load. Seen as the 'caretaker' of the household, they are assumed to take responsibility for keeping the household running, whether that be grocery shopping, party planning, appointment scheduling or cleaning. Over time, this can create an unbearable burden for the caretaker parent.
The mental load is an invisible yet significant issue that can have serious physical and psychological ramifications on the health and wellbeing of the caretaker parent. Without sufficient support and resources, caretaker parents can suffer from burnout and helplessness as they are continually overwhelmed by the mental load.
In fact, research has tied the mental burden of managing a household to depression, anxiety and other stress-related disorders. It's also been linked to decreased satisfaction within the relationship, as caretaker parents often feel resentment for carrying the majority of the workload and guilt for not being able to spend time enjoying other pursuits. These pursuits could include quality time with their family or passions outside the home.
Unscrambling the mental load of parenthood with Eggy
It's time to share the mental load. Eggy is designed to help busy parents take control of their life admin items, leaving a clutter-free headspace and more time for the important things in life. With its many functions, the app is a one-stop shop for organising your household tasks. From appointments, to meal planning, to grocery lists, to family calendars, to digital storage…all of which can be shared with any member of the household, in real time.
Eggy encourages organisation on a household level, by allowing the delegation of tasks to each family member. Eggy promotes a collaborative approach to managing the mental load, where everyone in the family can pitch in and take on some of the burden. For example, Eggy helps families better manage their kids' responsibilities, such as helping out with chores around the house. You can create custom ‘chores’ lists and assign tasks to each family member so that everyone can take ownership of their share of the workload. (Click here for printable chores list.) Another example would be creating a ‘School Space’ in Eggy and using the shared calendar to keep all stakeholders up-to-date with the school emails, important dates, assemblies, newsletters, notifications, information sessions, school camps, parent/teacher interviews, Facebook group posts, etc.
By organising and delegating the family’s obligations with Eggy, caretaker parents can share the mental load, declutter their headspace and teach their children about responsibility. Not only does this reduce stress within the household, but it allows for the caretaker parent to avoid burning out due to the significant volume of life admin that comes along with raising children.
Download Eggy and start taking control of your mental load today!