Have you ever felt, much like Jennifer Aniston’s character in The Breakup, that you didn’t just want your partner to do the dishes; you wanted them to want to do the dishes? If so, you were likely dealing with an imbalance of something called emotional labor.
The concept of emotional labor is essential to a happy, healthy household ecosystem. When we fail to recognize its importance, we open the door to frustration, exhaustion, conflict, and resentment.
Unfortunately, awareness of emotional labor does not immediately remove the negativity it can cause, but it does give us a language to identify, discuss, and later attack these challenges.
When it comes to building mindfulness and a positive relationship with emotional labor, it may help to break each problem down into components: conceptualization, planning, and execution.
Rebalancing the workload so everyone has a fair role is essential, but it’s not an immediate shift. It will likely cause some discomfort and growing pains along the way.