I'm a ChatGPT convert—here's how it helps with my mental load of motherhood
Motherhood is always busy, but springtime seems to be the busiest season for my family. All three of my kids play sports, summer planning is in full-swing and there are so many celebrations. It is overwhelming to juggle everything.
I used to think our lives were busy a few years ago, but now that we have three kids in school with 1-2 activities a kid, our lives are in complete overdrive. After school is a carpool shuffle between my husband, me and sometimes some lovely friends shuttle our kids around the area from baseball to lacrosse to gymnastics or rock climbing. It’s a lot.
A few weeks ago, I caught the ChatGPT bug on a recommendation from my boss. After playing around with the tool for a while and inputting different work-related questions, I started asking questions that were keeping me up at night, like:
- What should we do for a week in Spain for spring break?
- Recommend a weeknight dinner that a 9 year old can make
- What should I bring for brunch I’m invited to this weekend?
- How do I think of fun lacrosse drills to do for 3rd/4th grade girls for two 1-hour practices every week for 12 weeks?
- What is an age-appropriate chore chart for a 9 year old including a breakdown of the steps for each chore?
- What is a location for my husband’s family to go on vacation where we can all fly direct?
The initial results were pretty impressive. I was able to get a recipe with a shopping list included for my brunch, get suggestions for great spots to visit in Spain, plan our 12 (!) weeks of lacrosse practices with detailed descriptions of drills, and create a printable chore chart for my 9 year old.
The part I love about ChatGPT is not the initial response you receive but when you continue to ask for more or better responses. ChatGPT can help to lessen the burden of those tasks and eliminate some of the busy work that goes into meal planning and activity planning. In my first week of using ChatGPT, I would estimate that it saved me at least 5-10 hours of work and 1-3 hours in the middle of the night worrying about said work.
The mental load of mothering is crushing. While ChatGPT is not a panacea for the endless tasks of modern motherhood, it has helped me to figure out how to plan out the operational olympics that play out in my head every single day. It may not be able to clean my house or actually make dinner, but it has certainly helped me to alleviate some of the mental load of motherhood.
I spend at least an hour a day now using ChatGPT to help me do more at work, but also to solve some of my most pressing personal problems. While I admittedly was hesitant at first to adopt this new technology, I’ve been surprised by how much it’s truly helped me alleviate the mental load of motherhood.
