One of the main reasons parents get divorced is because there has been an uneven division of parental duties during their marriage.
Over the last few decades, women have been given more opportunities in the workplace, which has led to more mothers returning to employment after having children.
At the same time, the cost-of-living crisis has meant many families cannot afford for one partner to stay at home with the kids and not bring in an income. That is why, in 2021, three in four mums with dependent children in the UK worked.
What’s more, since 2020, in families where the mum and dad work, both parents tended to be in full-time employment, as opposed to the father working full-time and the mother working part-time.
This is in part thanks to an increase in employers offering flexible hours, with 33.3 per cent of mothers having a special working arrangement in their job, while 13.4 per cent regularly work from home.
Despite this shift in more mothers taking on financial responsibility within the family set up, many still feel they are doing the lion’s share of the childcare and household duties.
This is what a TikTok post that has gone viral has revealed, with divorce expert Dennis R Vetrana from New York saying women still do more domestic jobs than men, even though they work just as hard.
In a video that has been seen 4.5 million times, he says: “She’s got the kids, she’s got the groceries, she’s got the laundry, she’s got the meals, she’s got the work, and by the way, she’s making all the money and she’s paying for the house and doing everything else.”
Therefore, it is not a surprise that “women are tired”, which is why many decide they can no longer continue this dynamic and decide to end their marriage.
Although many mums worry getting divorced will mean they have to do even more work at home, one commenter posted: “I had less work as a single mom of two than as a married mom of two [sic].”
The post clearly hit a chord with viewers, as it has received more than 10,300 comments and received over 511,000 likes in the last six days.
According to the latest divorce figures from the Office for National Statistics (ONS), there were 113,505 legal separations in England and Wales in 2021. This is an increase of 9.6 per cent compared with the previous year.
The rise in divorces could be the result of delays caused by the pandemic, or it could be due to mothers becoming exasperated with taking on even more roles during lockdown, including home schooling.
Indeed, more than two-thirds (67 per cent) of women taught their kids when schools shut because of Covid-19, compared with a much lower 52 per cent of men.
In addition to this, women also had to spend more time cooking, feeding, entertaining and cleaning up after the kids, as well as working.
As a result, over half of women struggled with the second lockdown, whereas 45 per cent of males admitted to finding it hard.
Couples struggling with their marriage should consider family mediation in Epsom, as it may be that shifting the balance of responsibilities could be all it takes to repair a relationship.
