Studies Show That Husbands Stress Women Twice As Much As Children
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Throughout the course of their lives, women don several roles – loving daughters, brilliant students, smart workers, and superhuman wives and mothers. Well, new studies have shown that out of all these roles, it’s the last one that stresses women out the most. Not that it’s entirely surprising, but the particular cause behind it may shock you!
So, the reason?
Husbands!
In today’s progressive world it might sound archaic, even regressive, but most women still feel that they have no choice left but to baby their husbands along with the children they already have. Which basically means that relying on your husband for chores or help with the housework is probably still a utopian dream. (Cue rolling eye emoji.)
Even today, post-marriage (and especially post-children), women are expected to perform several duties, including cooking, teaching their kids, cleaning the house, planning a party, and taking care of every single member of the household. And though they try to act like they can manage it all with ease, the added duties take a toll on them and severely affect their work lives.
Today.com, the website of the famous TV news show broadcasted on the American channel, NBC, decided to investigate this matter deeper and carried out a survey to prove how stressed out women really are because of their husbands (1).
They interviewed over 7,000 mothers and discovered that most of them gave a rating of 8.5 out of 10 to the stress levels they faced on a daily basis. On top of that, 46% of these women also confessed that their husbands induced more stress in their lives than their children!
Another interesting finding that came out from this survey was that every 3 in 4 mothers with husbands/partners admitted to doing most of the household work as well as parenting on their own.
Moreover, every 1 in 5 mothers also said that one of the reasons why they feel excess stress is because they do not get enough help in carrying out the duties of the house. They also rued over the fact that they do not get enough time to complete all the chores that need to be completed in a day, adding further to their stress levels.
What’s worse is that as time passes by, this excess stress has the potential to seriously affect the health of each of the partner’s involved. And a study carried out by the University of Padova has proved just that (2).
According to this research, the health of a husband seriously deteriorates after his wife passes away. This is because of the extra responsibilities that suddenly fall on his shoulder. However, in the case of wives, it’s the opposite! The same study revealed that if the husband happened to pass away first, there’s an overall improvement in the health of the wife.
So, what we can gather from the above information is simple – there’s a problem here. And where there’s a problem, there has to be a solution in place to fix it. So, if you feel like you’re in the same boat and that it could sink any moment, let us give you some tips on how to tackle common stress-inducing household issues:
Talk To Your Partner
Communication is key, and the lack of it is the root cause of all evil in a marriage! So, if you feel like you’ve been overworked lately and that your husband is not helping around as much as he should, sit down with him and have a hearty chat about it. Be patient when talking and try to come up with a list of chores and how you can divide the tasks equally among each other. Explain to your partner that splitting duties are a way to reduce stress.
Trust Your Partner To Do A Good Job
Most wives take up additional responsibilities not because their husbands are unwilling to lend a hand, but because they believe he won’t do a great job at it. So, instead of doing that, have faith that your husband is trying to be the best father and partner he can be and start entrusting him with household duties.
This’ll help you lighten your load to a great extent! However, if you are skeptical, start with simpler, easier-to-do tasks and then move on to more complex ones. Just remember that you and your partner are a team and you need to trust each other if you want to lead a stress-free life. If that means daddy and kids make a mess, so be it. The more time they’ll spend together, the more free time you’ll get.
Being a wife and mother can get very hard, but you can make your life simpler by simply involving your partner in everything you do. However, if your partner still refuses to cooperate, you know what to do!
