Active discussions

Please or to access all these features

Talk
AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

Who does all the life admin in your house?

60 replies

StrawberryCo · 09/04/2025 19:10

(When you have children?) Do you share it equally? If one partner works full time and the other is part time does the part timer do it all? SAHMS - Do you do all of the life admin while your partner works?

My set up - I’m currently a SAHM and I do all the life admin. When I was in part time work I also was responsible for everything.

Life admin includes-

All homework

Booking and remembering all appointments for the family

Hospital appointments/dentist/therapy etc

All reading and studying

Booking and purchasing all household items

Booking repairs and finding cleaners/gardeners/decorators etc

Remembering all school activities such as bloody world book day/wear red day/eat an orange day 😆

All meal planning/shopping and cooking

All teeth cleaning/bedtime stories

Finding and booking all holidays/days out/meals out

After school activities

And tonight I’ve got to make an Easter bonnet 😆

SN kids so lots of additional appointments to juggle too. Phew! 😮‍💨

I have ADHD so this organisation lark does not come naturally to me!

OP posts:
lola006 · 09/04/2025 19:26

I’m a SAHM to school aged DC and I do most of what’s on the list but I don’t view brushing teeth and bedtime type things as “life admin”, not now and not when my DC were tiny.

MarxAndSparx · 09/04/2025 19:25

Dh sorts and pays all the household bills and car stuff.

I do all the kids stuff, school related admin, playdates, parties, doctors, dentists etc.

We both do the food shop. Dh usually does the top up shop during the week.

It works well for us.

Comedycook · 09/04/2025 19:23

All teeth cleaning/bedtime stories

I don't consider this to be life admin. Just ordinary day to day parenting

Itsabingthingfubing · 09/04/2025 19:23

I do maybe 98% of it but there are reasons for that. I am disabled and need a lot of rest but I can still book appointments or do an online shop from bed on my phone. My husband does what we call "the heavy lifting" so he does the physical labour in a lot of cleaning, cooking and sometimes I essentially boss him around (kindly!) while he does things like bring me washing to fold or paperwork I need to sort. It's a balance that we find works for us but I think if we were both able bodied we'd probably feel differently. We see it as playing to our strengths because of our circumstances though.

Mandylovescandy · 09/04/2025 19:21

Both work FT (though I was PT when kids were younger) and I do about 80-90% of it. DH does some cleaning and some cooking and sometimes DIY stuff

Loopytiles · 09/04/2025 19:20

Some of the stuff on your list is parenting. I judge fathers who don’t do aspects of parenting.

Parker231 · 09/04/2025 19:17

Life admin is just part of being an adult - it’s not complicated and is the responsibility of both parents. Why would one do it all? Is the other lazy or incompetent?

Comedycook · 09/04/2025 19:17

He does all household bills, utilities, insurance etc and car stuff.

I do everything to do with kids...so dealing with school, college, medical appointments etc

I do all food shopping and cooking. Nearly all housework.

If we needed work done in house, he would organise.

Suits me.

DappledThings · 09/04/2025 19:16

Pretty evenly split between us.

ItsNearlyEaster · 09/04/2025 19:14

Ditto! When I was a sham I did 100% and now I probably do about 98% even though I am now back to work (10 years out of work as sahm). I don't mind it tbh! Busy, but my DH work is intense and he's the breadwinner, for which I'm extremely grateful!