How to get your partner to share the mental load (ep 73)

A recent report found that the unpaid care gap between men and women has decreased by only 7 minutes a day across a 15–year time span. 7 minutes! The only thing that is perhaps more shocking than this statistic, is that the research also shows that worldwide BOTH men and women agree that household chores should be a woman’s responsibility!  If we want to make a change here we need to do more to help couples to thrive together.  How can we work together with our partners to share the unpaid care and household chores?   You know we’re all about the practical advice, so this episode is jam-packed with tips and tricks you can use to get your partner to share the mental load and, by implication, the physical stuff too.  Here are some of the things we suggest:  Start sharing the load before you have children   Support and encourage your partner to take parental leave  Support and encourage your partner to work flexibly   Don’t let the responsibility for childcare be all yours  Share caregiving responsibility by dividing between days duties or activities  Do the planning together  Remember, done is better than perfect (yes, Lucy is on about those towels again…)  Don’t expect change overnight  Links mentioned in this episode:   Read the State of the World’s Fathers 2019 report here  Women’s Agenda’s summary of the SOWF report   The Juggle Community, our online Facebook group  Subscribe to The Juggle Podcast on Apple Podcast, Stitcher or Android   Find us on Instagram and Facebook  The Juggle website, where you can find all episodes of The Juggle and sign up to be notified when a new episode is released  Happy juggling!