I want to address the $3.6 million care gap in the United States. Yeah, you heard that right. The care gap deals with who in the family is providing the most care for other members of the family, community and extended family – and you guessed it, the care gap tends to fall on women.

Obviously, things are changing – and we hope they continue to change. But there is a human in a family who tends to pull back their career and care for other members of the family – this can be aging parents, Aunt Myrtle, children or people in the community. There is a level of care given that causes that human to pull back on their career and making money.

The person who does that in a family, on average, in the United States, is worth $180,000 a year. That's shopping. That's food planning and cooking. That's cleaning. That's driving.

If there isn't a family member doing it, you're paying someone else. As women, this affects our ability to have more financial power.

I think as we talk about this, one of the things that we can do is ask ourselves why we don't value the care gap work as much as we value revenue generating work? For some reason, we pretend like it doesn't matter as much.

There are varying theories about that, from this is really hard work. I don't want to do it, which means it doesn't matter. The other theory is that it's invisible work.

It's the invisible, unpaid work that makes the world work. It is making lunches. It's making sure programs are met. It's making sure deadlines are met. It's making sure people are a doctor's appointments.

My son went to college this year, and before he left there were a couple weekends where he watched me around the house. I love to clean. I love to patch drywall. I love to take care of my home. It's one of my big passions. And he was watching me do this, and he looked around and he asked, "Wait a minute, how often do you do this?" I said, once every two weeks.

There's a mental load to having life work properly. I asked him, do you know if the dog's been fed? No. Do you know if the cat's been fed? No. Are they up on their vaccinations? I don't know. Do you have a doctor's appointment coming up? I think so. Do you know when it is? No.

I went through all the things. And I didn't do that to scare him. But I want you to recognize if this happens to be you in your home, I want you to recognize the mental load that exists nonstop for you. Just feel that. Because somebody has to do it.

So if you are finding yourself feeling like you're always behind the eight ball, or you're like, what is wrong with me? Why can't I do all the things I know I need to do?

How many things are you actually doing? We don't talk about or acknowledge that. We minimize it. We don't pay attention to it and then we assume there's something wrong with us when we can't handle all of it.

I want you to keep track of what you're doing. Keep track of the time that it costs you. We have to be honest about the time that it costs us to run our lives, but also how much time there is and the reason we do what we do. Once we start to talk about something, we start to create solutions.

Mentioned in this episode: The Nordic Theory of Everything: https://amzn.to/4e3fiNM

How Much Is a Mother Really Worth? https://www.salary.com/articles/mother-salary/

Other GoG episodes you might want to check out:

Wealth is the Luxury of Choice Not a Number with Kaitlyn Carlson https://sarahwalton.com/wealth-business/

Overcome Societal Expectations of 'You're Not Enough' With Wellness Coach Ali Sempek https://sarahwalton.com/societal-expectations-for-women/

You can check out our podcast interviews on YouTube, too! http://bit.ly/YouTubeSWalton

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