Stress: Why Do Mothers Experience It More Often Than Fathers?

Of course, every parent and every home is different, and the way some partners deal with stress is different from others. But studies show that fathers generally do not suffer from the same type of stress that mothers do when it comes to taking care of their children.

Scientific results indicate that women tend to be more dissatisfied with their responsibilities as a parent than men are. Why is this happening and do you agree?

Parenting requires a number of exhausting duties. Routines, duties and lack of time for oneself can be overwhelming. It seems that this is much more complicated for women than for men.

We think it has something to do with the need for perfection that women have, as well as the lack of help from their partners.

What happens when two people with the same routine are not on the same wavelength? In this situation, one person will most likely end up doing most of the work. When a mother notices that her partner is not helping her, or is not doing things properly, she experiences stress.

When it comes to parenting, most fathers do not have to look after their children for extended periods of time. It is usually quite temporary and this does not lead to stress.

They know that when mom comes home, he can pass on the responsibility. This does not work the other way around. If mother is busy with the children when father comes home, then she does not get rid of her ‘guard’.

What do the studies say about motherhood and stress?

The American University of Cornell conducted a study through the Minnesota Population Center. The study started by analyzing the amount of time that both men and women spend taking care of their children. This study was enough to point out the immense difference.

According to the survey results, women not only spend more time on their children, but it is also an exhausting process. If the process was simple and completely satisfying, then the time we spent would not have a particularly negative effect on our nerves. 

But in these cases, it was discovered that women were clearly more stressed and less happy than men.

The researchers looked at 12,000 cases. The parents’ feelings were researched according to the use of their time. The study was conducted over three years.

The indicators they studied were the amount of time and the different types of activities performed by mothers and fathers. They also took into account the environment in which the parents took care of their children.

As most of the responsibilities in parenting are placed on the mother, the time they get to enjoy being with their children is reduced. Mothers also do not get time for themselves. Fathers tend to have more free time than mothers.

Mothers enjoy less time with their children

Let us analyze the following situation: a father comes home from a hard day’s work. The mother prepares dinner and the children watch television.

What does the father do? Most of the time he chooses to relax or sit with the kids for a while. 

But the mother does not have time for that. She has to continue cooking. She then has to serve it and then clean up the kitchen. By the time she’s done, all that stress from the household chores has already accumulated.

After all this, she unfortunately does not have the opportunity to take advantage of the quality time with either her children or her partner.

These kinds of situations can be repeated at different levels. For example, when a father has to take care of his child, he will probably take them to the cinema, out to get an ice cream, or just play with them on the playground.

Mothers cannot do this as they have to keep working to make other family members happy.

Motherhood does not make us unhappy

It is also common for mothers to ask their partner to take children to the park while she is washing clothes or tidying up the home. As always, we sacrifice ourselves for our family and we end up being unhappy about something that really gives us a lot of joy.

It does not make us unhappy to be mothers. This is how motherhood is carried out – the demands placed on our shoulders.

The need we have to make sure our family is not missing anything ends up stealing our time from us – time that we could spend with the family.