A whole load of mental load

The mental load continues to generate a load of attention, driven by a deluge of data.

One new report found that 93% of mums are experiencing, or have experienced, burnout, of which more than half said they feel burned out often or almost always. The invisible cognitive stress of the mental load was cited as a major reason for the findings.

Sociologist Leah Ruppanner found that the mental load is 70% carried by women, and breaks it down into eight different areas.

If this sounds like a lot, it’s nothing compared to Cat Sims, who wrote down everything that makes up the mental load and found it came to 47 pages. 

It clearly takes a lot of work to live a life, and a lot more to help others live theirs. Survey after survey, not to mention a whole lot of lived experience, tells us that women are the ones doing this work.

But what’s fascinating is that while this trend appears consistent, the typical family unit is anything but. 

Millennial dads spend double the amount of time on childcare than their parents and quadruple the amount of their grandparents. The spiralling cost of housing and living has meant nearly three-quarters of couple families with children under 15 have both parents employed.

This clearly points to an uncomfortable fact - the burden of the mental load isn’t circumstantial, it’s cultural. And given the growing cacophony of noise around the issue, we may well be in for a cultural reckoning.