Andy Tegel

Leah says there are three characteristics of the mental load that can often make it difficult for people to talk about, let alone make changes to.

First, it's invisible and internal.

When does that end?

Takeaway one.

The mental load can be heavy and often much heavier for the women and mothers of a household.

The same goes for the consequences of dropping it.

You're not making it up.

It's not just in your head and it's not a personality trait.

Leah, why does this all seem to matter so much more to women than to men?

You know, are we all just overthinking?

Are our standards just too high?

This isn't Leah's personal opinion.

That different standard is a finding from her research.

It came from an experiment that Leah put together after she kept hearing again and again from men and women all over the world that women do more housecleaning because they're just more likely to see the mess.

The first was just seeing how men and women would rate the messiness of each room.

And big surprise, men and women rated the messy room as equally messy and the clean as equally clean.

Stop saying that to each other.

Then Leah's lab took things one step further and named the rooms.

So this room belongs to Jennifer.

This room belongs to John.