In this YouTube video, Lisa Woodruff of Organize 365 reviews Eve Rodsky’s 2019 book Fair Play. She frames the discussion around the “mindset” theme and explains how the book articulates the invisible mental load that many work‑from‑home mothers carry. Woodruff cites Pew Research data that women perform roughly 28 hours per week of house‑work (excluding childcare) and notes the persistent gender imbalance in both physical and mental household tasks. She shares personal anecdotes about her own husband Greg, her teenage children, and a vivid excerpt from the book that dramatizes the constant stream of texts and calls a mother receives about meals, clothing, and logistics. Woodruff then outlines Rodsky’s solution: a card‑based system that assigns complete ownership of tasks (planning, shopping, cooking, cleanup, etc.) to one partner, ensuring the mental load is shared. She recommends the book as a practical tool for couples seeking to “play fair” and invites viewers to subscribe for future reviews.
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Today I'm reviewing the book Fair Play by Eve Rodsky. This book came out in the fall of 2019, and it also was reviewed on my podcast Organized 365 with an interview with Eve in December of 2019. Okay, ladies, you are going to resonate with this book hugely. So we're talking about mindset this month. And one of the things that I kept trying to articulate and I could not put into words was the mental load that I, as the work-from-home female parent, was feeling with my kids as they were growing up. Now, my kids are 19 and 20, so they obviously are much older at this point. And I'm— dang it, I wish I had had this book 20 years ago so I could articulate to Greg what I was feeling and thinking. What I've been saying over the last year— 8 years in Organized 365 is I often will quote the Pew Research Institute about how many hours it takes to take care of your house. 28 a week, you guys. 28 hours a week without children of house care, lawn care, cleaning, cooking. You know, all of those things take so many hours. And the division between men and women is not equal. Women tend to do more of the physical in the house. But also there is the mental load. And Eve has been able to, in this book, articulate again that mental load that we are all feeling. She talks about how when, like, let's say, who makes dinner at your house? Do you make dinner at your house? Does your spouse make— who makes dinner at your house? Often the person that physically cooks the meal and puts it on the table gets credit for making dinner. But making dinner involves a bunch of different steps. There is planning the meal, getting the food, cooking the food, cleaning up the food. You know, like there's a lot encompassed in it, but we often say making the meal goes to whoever actually cooks it on the stove and serves it on the table, even though there are all those other components. Eve says no more. Whoever is in charge of the cooking and the food does it all. Like the planning, the grocery shopping, the budgeting, the preparing, the putting away, the making a leftover, clearing out the refrigerator and making sure it makes it in the garbage. All of it. Like they have to do all of it, including the mental load. So I'm gonna read to you this little excerpt out of the book. And I, you know, my kids are getting older. I have, I still work from home. I have always worked from home, even growing my corporation. And so I feel like, oh, okay, well, I don't, I don't need to worry about this. And boy, when I read this page and a half, I was like, yes, yes. And you may be saying the same thing. So she and her girlfriends have gotten up and they like had everything ready and they went and they did. I think it was, they were doing a walk. Yeah. They were doing a walk together. It's at the very end of the walk. And she says, they were talking about if they're going to go to lunch. That is, until the first text came through around noon. When are you coming home? It was from Jill's husband, who spent the morning with the kids and was already done. As we watched her type back the prompt response, nearly every woman in the group felt her own phone come to life with similar messages that appeared. When is the babysitter coming? Where did you put Josh's soccer bag? What's the address of the birthday party? Do the kids need to eat lunch? The mutual expression was remarkable, and we began sharing each message as it came through. Eat lunch? What do you think? Susie wondered out loud with amusement and turned disbelief and then irritation. As we laughed and griped in equal measure, I got my first call. Where's Anna's outfit you picked out? She doesn't have any pants. It was Seth. Well, I guess we're not going to the park because you, he emphasized, didn't leave me any clothes. Really? I'd quietly left him— left them out after he'd gone to bed the night before. As calmly as I could, I suggested, try the dresser, try the hamper, and if you still can't find any pants— I tried not to snap— put her in shorts. After 30 calls and 46 texts from our husbands, from the substitute women like sitters, neighbors, and mothers-in-laws who'd been called in to rescue and cover for our husbands, Charlotte was the first to say what we were all thinking. Maybe we should just skip lunch and go home. Okay. That has hit a hot button with you. I highly recommend you go ahead and get the book Fair Play because not only is it gonna hit the hot buttons and make you think, seriously, like you helped me birth this child and bring it into the world, but you can't dress this child, feed this child, look at a calendar and know where they're supposed to go. That's just in chapter 1. The rest of the book explains how do we unpack what we are feeling as women and the mental load we have, the emotional load we have in the house and with children, and express that in a calm manner with our spouses and then level the playing field. It's called Play Fair. And she has a whole system for how you make all these cards and you literally put the cards on the table and then you take them. Somebody's going to take the meal card and if they take the meal card, they take 100% Of the meal card. So if you're looking for a solution to this problem, Eve has got it. Go ahead and subscribe to our channel. We'll have a new book review next Monday.
