Women With Too Many Responsibilities & Not Enough Time Usually Say 6 Phrases To Anyone Who'll Listen
MAYA LAB / Shutterstock The weight of carrying too many responsibilities and not having enough time to fulfill them all can easily become overwhelming for many women.
It's also pretty common for them to feel like they can't freely express themselves because they don't want to burden anyone else. Instead, they make unconscious statements to just about anyone within earshot that hint at the deep exhaustion and complete lack of control they feel.
Women with too many responsibilities and not enough time often say these phrases to anyone who will listen
1. "I don't know how I'm supposed to do all of this."
It's well known by now that women often do the majority of invisible labor in their households. Kathryn Emerick, MD, describes this as "things like buying groceries, but more insidiously includes all of the cognitive labor- meal planning, knowing what is in the fridge vs what needs to be bought to make those meals, knowing how long grocery shopping takes and thus where it can fit into the family schedule, deciding what night to make which meal, what time dinner needs to be started to have it ready on time and on and on."
They also take on quite a lot of emotional labor, which means putting other people's feelings and needs ahead of their own. So it’s understandable that while trying to take care of everything, women may feel like they don’t know how to get everything done, especially when they don’t have a proper support system.
2. "Can someone please just tell me what they need from me?"
Akachin Phonsawat from Getty Images Signature via Canva
Women who function as everyone’s emotional support system can become seriously exhausted. When her kids, her partner, her parents, her co-workers, and her friends all come to her for advice, it can feel like pressure is closing in from all sides.
On the one hand, yes, it may feel nice to be depended on and valued, but sometimes it feels like she’s just blindly guessing what everybody needs. This leads to burnout and mental exhaustion, as well as an inability to think clearly about what it is everyone really wants.
3. "I haven't had a minute to myself all day."
There’s a false theory that women have tons of free time, when the reality is that most really don’t. Their days are spent running errands, caregiving, working, doing chores, and trying to see their loved ones, so it’s easy for women to forget about their own needs.
It easily starts to feel like there are so many hours in the day and not a single one is for herself. When women have this much on their plate, sometimes just one more task will push them over the edge. They just need a minute to breathe, but there doesn't seem to be an answer as to where they will get it.
4. "I'm so tired, but I can't stop."
filadendron from Getty Images Signature via Canva
Across time, women have been expected to be the caretakers of their families. However, it’s basically unpaid labor. When a woman has a million things going on, it’s normal to feel burned out and exhausted eventually.
When a woman feels like she is absolutely exhausted but can't stop to rest for even a moment, she may be far more likely to say that to anyone who will listen than she is to actually do anything about it.
5. "I just need five minutes of quiet."
There is a particular kind of guilt over asking for solitude that many women feel. They feel a lot of social pressure to keep going and make themselves social, along with a false sense that never slowing down makes you a better parent.
The reality is that you have to take care of yourself in order to take care of other people. Just a few minutes of silence can really change somebody's mood.
6. "Let me just do it, it will be faster."
kate_sept2004 from Getty Images Signature via Canva
When a woman says that she'll just do something, she’s usually not trying to make everybody else's lives easier. It's more likely that she’s trying to make her own life easier. For example, if she’s the only one who knows how to properly fold the laundry, then it would just make more work for her to let someone else do it and then have to redo it, or she'll have to spend even more time ironing.
This phrase is often a sign that either the people in her life need to learn how to do their chores responsibly, or she needs to let go of expecting a perfect outcome.
Sophie Bagheri is a writer with a bachelor’s degree in English and theatre who covers lifestyle topics.
