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Article Surprisingly…It’s Not Kids Who Stress Out Mums The Most

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Studies reveal that mums think their partner is a bigger source of stress than their kids…

Raising kids isn’t easy, but it turns out that dealing with your partner can be even more difficult. Studies have shown that nearly half of mums believe that their partners cause them more stress than their kids do, often due to the way that parental responsibilities are shared within the family.

Taking Time Out

Mums were found to have less than an hour of leisure time per week resulting in high stress levels, while dads had over 100 minutes of time to themselves. Multi-tasking was also found to increase the pressure on mums resulting in negative feelings and work-family conflict. While millennial dads spend nearly three times as much time with their kids as previous generations, many parenting duties are still considered the responsibility of mums, leading to feelings of resentment between couples. The study says that dads can make small but meaningful changes to alter this dynamic and help balance the parental pressure.

Sharing the Load

Even though dads are more involved than ever when it comes to raising their kids, 52% admit that they change their child’s nappy less than their partner according to an article published on motherhood website Motherly. Changing your child, bathing them and dressing them increases the bond between parent and child, so dads this could be a good place to start if you’re trying to help out more. Balancing chores and offering emotional support are also ways to reduce the stress of parenthood and marriage, with effective communication highlighted as an essential part of helping mums to feel valued.

We think that most dads do an incredible job of juggling their responsibilities, but it’s always good to have regular conversations as a couple to ensure that no one is feeling over burdened and that parental responsibilities are shared equally as much as possible.

How do you divide parental responsibilities in your family? Let us know in the comments.

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Comments

  • My partner works. So I’m at home full time with three kids. I am always cooking cleaning and looking after the kids. My husband doesnt know or understand how hard it is to to do chorus while help the kids. And he wonders why I’m so tired every night.

    Reply

  • The arrangement we have suits us. Husband works full time and is away from home half the time. I work part time and do the majority of the household jobs. I get my kids to help me now. My husband contributes when he can. My only gripe is the languaging around the shared household duties. My husband always says… “I’ll help you with that ….” …. and furthermore I often thank him for helping me. Albeit minor, the messaging implies that all the parenting and household chores are my responsibility which is true but this arrangement may not be aligned with the expectations of my sons’ future partners of the same generation ????
    Hmmm…. interesting topic for “over dinner discussion” one night I think.

    Reply

  • Agree completely. My partner works long days but the responsibility of looking after the home and kids falls solely on me plus I will be returning to work 2 days a week soon. He doesn’t realise how easy he has it!!!

    Reply

  • I agree to a point. Dads seem to have it so much easier so much of the time.

    Reply

  • I’m in the same situation as Ellen. I stay at home so I do all the jobs in the house and I am fine with that.

    Reply

  • hell yes, throws out all the routines unless he made them coz he knows better, it is a family trait on his side

    Reply

  • Yep I can agree with this. Always trying to compete with who had the harder day

    Reply

  • The stress at mine lies in the lack of finishing one of those ‘shared’ tasks. “I fed the kids”….yes but left ALL the ingredients out, the benches covered in spills, the high chair and floor underneath splattered & the dirty bib on the table :/

    Reply

  • My husband could cause me much much less stress if he actually listened and did the things I asked him to do rather than waiting until I try to do it myself and risking my life lifting things that are too heavy.

    Reply

  • Think it is better these days than it once used to be. Dads are far more hands on than they used to be.

    Reply

  • My husband goes out working all day and I’m a stay at home mum, so yeah parental responsibilities are uneven divided here. But I’m ok with that.

    Reply

  • The response is often Dad’s do more now than they used to but with a lot of Mums now working full time everything else needs to be split evenly too.

    Reply
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