It’s easy to THINK you’re splitting household chores, like, “I’ll take out the trash, and you can deep-clean the bathrooms.” But there’s a LITTLE more nuance than that.
A study in the “Journal of Marriage and Family“ analyzed 3,000 American households with at least one child under the age of 18.
It found that there’s a “mental load” disparity, and that 71% of the household “brain work” falls on moms, while fathers manage just 45%. (Those don’t add up to 100, partially because the study was inclusive of LGBTQ+ parents and single parents.)
The study identified two categories of brain labor: “Daily” tasks focused on immediate family well-being, and “Episodic” tasks related to maintenance and finances.
Mothers shoulder 79% of “Daily” cognitive tasks, more than TWICE what fathers do (37%). That includes tracking children’s schedules, meal planning, and monitoring household supplies.
Fathers take on more “Episodic” mental work (65%), though mothers still handle a significant portion (53%) of these tasks as well.
And it sounds like there is some duplication there, for example, a majority of mothers (61%) AND fathers (57%) report being “primarily responsible for tracking household expenses.”
For single parents, both solo moms and dads tend to handle all types of brain labor equally, and yes, single fathers take on significantly more mental work than partnered fathers.
