A woman on my flight yesterday switched seats with her husband because their toddler wouldn’t stop crying.
The second she sat down alone, she closed her eyes for maybe 30 seconds.
Just resting.
Not sleeping.
When the husband walked past with the kid later, he laughed and said loudly,
“Must be nice to finally get a break from doing nothing.”
A few people chuckled.
She laughed too.
But something about it felt off because for the entire flight she had been:
holding the baby,
packing snacks,
cleaning spills,
walking him down the aisle,
missing her own meal trying to calm him down…
while the husband watched a movie with headphones on.
And honestly I think that’s why so many women are exhausted.
Not because they’re doing everything alone.
But because they’re doing everything while someone else calls it “nothing.”