A mom of two recently shared what she thinks many fellow moms really want for Mother's Day, and her unfiltered take has quickly gone viral.
In a TikTok video, Madison Barbosa, 30, says in part, "She doesn't want a day away from the family. She doesn't want a day where she's just not around her kids or you at all. She wants a day where she can shut her f------ brain off, where she doesn't have to have the mental load for one day."
Barbosa's video clip has already been viewed over 128,000 times and has garnered more than 10,000 likes and over 6,000 shares.
The 30-year-old told "Good Morning America" her post was inspired by her own experience and stories from other mom friends who said their husbands didn't realize what they really wanted to do on the annual holiday.
"After having so many of my mom friends come to me and say like, 'My husband dropped the ball. I didn't get a card. I didn't get flowers,' it was like, how do I make a funny video where I'm kind of lighthearted about it but where I'm direct enough to say, this is what you need to do?" Barbosa said of the motivation behind her TikTok post.
Barbosa acknowledged that oftentimes, a mental load can be a kind of invisible labor and hard to recognize.
"I think that every mom has a mental load that is not seen by many people," she said. "Most husbands just don't realize that a mom is the one making the doctor's appointments and the dentist appointments, and packing the lunches, and getting the kids to school, and making sure that they have shoes that fit them, and making sure that they have clothes that fit them, and restocking diapers, and making sure the pantry and the fridge [are] full. And we just do those things like a well-oiled machine."
Therefore, Barbosa's advice for Mother's Day is to look for ways to ease the mental load for the supermoms in your life and show appreciation by taking on some of the everyday tasks that normally fall on mothers.
"For Mother's Day, think about how all of that works," the mom of two said. "Think about all the behind-the-scenes [things] your wife is doing to make sure that that household runs smoothly, and absorb that for a day. Just take it off her plate for a day."
"Not only is it good for them to kind of walk in our shoes, but it's just a nice break for mom.... On Mother's Day, we're supposed to be appreciating moms, and that is the way to appreciate them. Let them have a true break," she added.
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