They dreamed of rest, they end up more exhausted than at the start. Each summer, thousands of women take charge of the organization of family holidays, often without even being discussed. Reserve the tickets, find suitable accommodation, think of suitcases, games for children, journey, meals once there … This logistics load, invisible but overwhelming, is added to the already well -known daily charge. And it weighs doubly: on the shoulders, but also on expectations. Because these women are not only responsible for the organization. They are also those to whom the success of the stay is implicitly entrusted.
When holidays rhyme with constant pressure
If the notion of mental load was theorized in the 80s, it is still as current. In 2010, a study of theINSEE showed that 64 % of household chores and 71 % of parental tasks fell to women. In 2022, a survey Ifop revealed that the French were more likely to take care of reservations for tickets and accommodation. Nothing seems to have changed since. A survey conducted by Voyagespirates With 358 travelers confirms this persistent trend. Not only 58 % of them say they take care of all the logistics, but 81 % claim to feel responsible for the success of the stay.
The weight of this responsibility does not stop at the reservation of the flight. It continues on site. Races, meals, linen, children’s management: logistics follows, relentless. The promise of collective rest often becomes a succession of individual micro-testers. And it has an emotional cost. The study shows that 54 % of women interviewed admit compromises on their personal preferences to adapt to the desires of the group. For 21 % of them, these concessions are recurrent. And the feeling of injustice is growing. Almost half of the respondents – 47 % – confide that their work and their involvement are not recognized at their fair value.
These efforts, as silent as they are, leave traces. 10% of the women concerned say they cannot be able to enjoy their vacation once there. Not because of an unexpected or a capricious weather, but because the pressure of having done everything well, for everyone, does not leave them. This feeling of having to succeed in everyone’s holidays, sometimes at the cost of their own pleasure, is anchored in deeply rooted social mechanisms.
A mental load that does not take leave
What strikes in this study is not only the extent of the figures. It is also the constancy of this phenomenon, year after year. The feeling of being expected on all fronts, having to anticipate everything, without equivalent return, draws a daily life, even far from the house. Originally, the concept of mental load aimed at highlighting this constant anticipation task, difficult to quantify but omnipresent. Today, he also invites himself in moments supposed to be light, festive, carefree.
The holidays, supposed to represent a parenthesis, then become one more land where this silent responsibility is exerted. And as long as it will remain invisible, it will continue to undermine these moments that were thought to be preserved.