Hello Readers! As promised, here is our first discussion thread. A lot has been written about the mental and emotional load that women carry for their families. I’d like to start a discussion about ways that you have approached this topic with your partner. What has worked? What was a total bomb? I’ll keep the thread open for a week. Don’t be shy! And men can participate too, please!
I’ll start. This is a never-ending topic in our household, but it has gotten much easier as our kids became adults. One way that we shared labor when the kids were younger was to divide and conquer. Because we had two kids, that worked okay. But then I noticed that we had gotten so in the habit of doing that, we spent little time together as a family on the weekends due to sports games. I definitely carried the mental load mostly because I worked part time and his job was so demanding. When I went back to full time teaching we had to negotiate some serious adjustments, especially around home repairs. As a teacher, I could not just take the morning off and work from home to wait for a repairman. Once I left teaching, I am now carrying all of the mental load except for travel planning which he loves. Unfortunately, the pandemic is putting a damper on that.
I’ll start. This is a never-ending topic in our household, but it has gotten much easier as our kids became adults. One way that we shared labor when the kids were younger was to divide and conquer. Because we had two kids, that worked okay. But then I noticed that we had gotten so in the habit of doing that, we spent little time together as a family on the weekends due to sports games. I definitely carried the mental load mostly because I worked part time and his job was so demanding. When I went back to full time teaching we had to negotiate some serious adjustments, especially around home repairs. As a teacher, I could not just take the morning off and work from home to wait for a repairman. Once I left teaching, I am now carrying all of the mental load except for travel planning which he loves. Unfortunately, the pandemic is putting a damper on that.