We’re continuing to explore reasons for our increased mental labor. Last week I ended my column talking about the pressures parents face to be more involved in their children’s schools.
Kids themselves are involved in more extracurricular activities then they were just a few decades ago. Author KJ Dell’Antonia tackled this subject in her book How to Be a Happier Parent.
CNN shared the following highlights from Dell’Antonia in August 2018: Unsupervised and unstructured playtime has decreased for all children since 1981. Parents spend more time driving children to and from activities and organizing and attending activities than they have in previous generations.
Twenty-seven percent of all trips taken in 2012 were for the sole purpose of attending an organized sporting event. And 35 percent of parents, according to a single survey, say that managing their child’s school and extracurricular transportation arrangements is more stressful than taxes.
How about our pets? They bring joy to so many of us. According to a survey by the American Pet Products Association 68 percent of American households own a pet. Pets now have a place in nearly 85 million American homes – just over five million more than in 2015.
I used to dream about having many pets as a child, much like my sister. I’ve been an animal lover for as long as I can remember. Growing up I remember her family at one time or another owning a dog, cat, guinea pig, lizard, hamsters, fish, and/or other creatures.
Now that I’m married with kids, we’ve often been called the Shankland Animal Shelter. Our list of various pets through the years is like what my sister and her family had. We now have two dogs and a cat. For the most part, they do bring us joy. For example, I love my daily walks with the dogs.
But, of course, household pets add to the mental load. At the very minimum you have their watering, feeding, grooming, flea and heartworm prevention medication, and veterinarian schedules to keep track of.
Dogs need to be walked, especially if you live in an apartment or have larger breeds. Some pets are fine for you to leave alone over a weekend, but that doesn’t work with canines. So, you can add boarding schedules whenever you need to take a weekend or longer trip.
And if something goes wrong with one of them? Like with a child, it causes major stress. Years ago, we looked for a new home for one of our cats, Princess, as she had litter box issues for over two years. We tried everything to fix the problem. Finding someone who has a barn who would like an older declawed cat was not easy.
Princess eventually became an outdoor cat thanks to an incredible cat house built by my husband. And she was much happier. We were relieved to not have to constantly worry about whether she was going to ruin our carpet.