There is no doubt about the fact that parenthood is remarkably challenging and often exhausting. If this burden is already complex to manage as a couple, when the two parents can share the tasks and responsibilities, supporting each other, it is still much more difficult alone.
When one of the two members of the couple has to spend a lot of time away from home – whether due to a trip or long work hours, whether it is a regular occurrence or a specific situation for specific reasons – the weight of taking care of the house and children falls completely on the other person's shoulders. But the truth is that those who will be away from home can also do a lot to make the situation easier for those who stay at home dealing with care and chores.
This is attested to by Michael Vaughn, better known by his alias @world.shaker on the social network TikTok, where he has more than 630 thousand followers. Among his many contents on various topics, he regularly talks about fatherhood. Specifically, he has a video where he explains how he reduces the mental load on her partner when she is left alone to care for her two daughters. The video published on TikTok in February of this year went viral and has not stopped garnering likes since its publication, with more than 420 likes so far.
“Reducing your partner's mental load doesn't just apply when you're at home, but also when you're away,” Vaughn began his story. Next, he explained that he was going to a conference for six days, “that means that my partner will assume 100% of the responsibilities with the girls and the house.” “She says she doesn't care, but I know she's too much,” she qualifies.
The first thing he did to facilitate this period was vacuum the entire house to leave the floors clean. “I washed and folded all the dirty clothes” so that there were no unfinished laundry left. “After putting our oldest daughter to bed, I'm going to wash the dishes so they have clean dishes.”
In addition, she indicates that she is normally in charge of preparing her little daughter's food, so she prepared some preparations in advance and left them packaged in the refrigerator, so that they would be ready to go in the morning.
Next, she prepared five sets of clothes for her little daughter. But she emphasizes that this is not simply about choosing clothes that match each other, but requires more planning. She looked at the weather forecast each day to adjust the layers of clothing the girl would need.
Finally, “I booked a hotel room for her, so she can have some free time for herself when I get back,” Vaughn says. “These are small gestures with great impact,” her story concludes.
