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Mental load ideas

6 replies

Imnotgonnamiss · 31/08/2025 09:24

I’m having a bit of burnout at the moment because while my husband and I do split household and family tasks I feel like since having the kids the additional mental load of managing everything connected to them has fallen to me. So as examples I book their wraparound & after school classes, I figure out the logistics to get them everywhere they need to be, I do food shopping/cooking as my “jobs” so I have to think about their packed lunch requirements, plan around everyone’s likes/dislikes etc, I keep an eye on clothes/shoes and note when they need new ones as they grew out, I look for holiday care options. I seem to have a constantly running list of things to check are done and even if my OH actually does half of them I still am always the one who seems to have the checklist and make sure they are all done. If something is missed and I’m ever even a bit irritated he’ll default to you didn’t ask me to do that and I struggle to articulate fully why I find it so irritating as a response but it’s to do with the idea that it reinforces that he ultimately sees it as my responsibility overall.

He has areas of the household stuff where he does take on the whole thing (all annual renewing bills and keeping MOT/car stuff up to date he keeps track of as one example). Prior to kids we had a split that worked well and we both found it very manageable. With the kids, particularly as they have got older and do a huge variety of activities that bucket of mental load has got bigger and bigger and honestly I just want to share it. We’ve talked about it and he’s open to sharing but he wants to find a way to split it up so he has bits that are clearly his vs bits that are clearly mine. Both of us are not quite sure how you break it up successfully. So for people who have it working well - how do you manage it?

OP posts:
Jasrai · 31/08/2025 17:46

You need to let go. Hand your husband responsibility for travel logistics for example and if he messes up, he sorts it out. You can also take things in turn like meal planning for the week. In order to alleviate stress you need to hand over full responsibility.

ScaryM0nster · 31/08/2025 17:54

Whole sale ownership of some topics.

We plan the weeks meals and locations and logistics one weekend evening, do the Tesco order and put it all on a weekly planner sheet. Sometimes with a beer.

Then if your name is next to it, it’s your responsibility to sort it or get it covered. Be that drop off, pick up, cook, post it, pay it etc.

Betsy95 · 31/08/2025 18:05

I’m a single mum so don’t have anyone to share anything with … it’s all on me.

Maybe you are just overburdening yourself with too many additional after school activities etc?

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NuffSaidSam · 31/08/2025 18:18

You need to make a list of everything that needs to be done/thought about and split it up from there, include all house stuff, kid stuff, pets, family stuff etc.

The other thing to do is look for places where the mental load can be reduced. I would suggest formulating a monthly meal plan would be a good idea. Sit down together and decide on a four week meal plan and just use that in rotation. This saves all the fretting about shopping, meal planning, considering everyone's preferences etc. Revisit the kids activities and keep it at a manageable level. Make sure the kids are pulling their weight in an age appropriate way. Have a stash of cards, stamps, wrapping paper and birthdays gifts for kids parties/relatives. Put a reminder rid any important birthdays/events a week before so you just have to retrieve something from the cupboard and send.

G5000 · 31/08/2025 18:26

whole ownership, as pp says. For example, DH is fully in charge of DC's basketball. I am not on any mailing lists or whatsapp groups, I don't know when their trainings start, what needs to be paid when, when and where the matches are, who is doing carpool, uniforms, shoes - no idea. That's the trick - as soon as I know about it, he knows I knows and that I will have the mental load of reminding him, so he can afford to forget. But I don't know. If anybody wants me to show up and see a match, they will need to let me know when and where. Very liberating.

Imnotgonnamiss · 01/09/2025 09:30

Thanks all. Some activities might be the thing easiest to untangle and just had over as a single block. Between them they do about 18 hours of extra curricular stuff a week including stuff like scouting where the session times adjust and dance/sports where there are so many ad hoc things and places they need parents to help out with various things. I keep thinking we should cut something but the kids love it all so I’m reluctant to. Between that and both our jobs being pretty busy with needs to work non standard hours periodically the logistics gets a bit crazy. When I was doing it initially they were just at nursery so it was super straightforward by comparison.

@Betsy95 - kudos to anyone doing it all by themselves. It gets to be a lot.

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