Gender GAP also stems from mental load

In my bullet journal, I have pages full of to-do lists. More or less completed. Sometimes there are only a few lines, other times they keep getting longer.

I confess that, faced with all the commitments, things to remember and do for myself and the rest of the family, I take my phone and dive into a random social media app to avoid thinking. To disconnect. I procrastinate. It’s a defense mechanism.

Do you know that chair full of clothes in the corner of the house? The one with clothes and other things that you no longer know if they are clean, dirty, recognizable, or wearable?

I feel like my mind is sometimes, but in certain periods it happens every day, like that chair: I can’t distinguish priorities from urgencies, the essential things from the useless ones.

The #mentalload refers to everything you try to keep in mind to organize and manage home/life/work: birthday gifts for friends or your children’s friends, school notices, trips, the weekly menu, shoes to buy (almost always for someone else), the endless shopping list (something is always missing), extracurricular activities, urgent work calls, social commitments, etc.

The load is also when you try to do everything at once to check off the next task: you make a phone call while taking your child to soccer. “Am I disturbing you?” “No, tell me.” But how nice would it be not to always have to respond and not always be Ready?

The mental load brings with it stress, anxiety, lack of sleep, memory, and concentration problems, burnout. You exhaust all your energy because there is hyperactivity in your mind.

In the video, it is highlighted how, in most cases, the load weighs more on women than on men. Every family is different and models are changing, responsibilities are being redistributed more equitably.

This difference in taking on the load also affects the #gendergap: to cross the finish line, the obstacles in front of you are numerous, close to each other, and difficult to distinguish.

In my home, there are invisible jobs: occasionally, my husband and I update each other, “Today I did an invisible job!” like cleaning the hood or the window panes. In everyday life, we constantly perform invisible tasks. You spend time and energy doing them, but no one sees them, and if no one sees them, they have no value.

The first step is to recognize and acknowledge all the tasks you perform that are not “nothing” but have value.

How much does this load weigh on your #professional or #personal development? How much time does it take away from everything else?

In your family, is the mental load equally divided?

Campaña "Carga Mental" de ComunidadMujer (youtube.com)