Can you actually outsource your mental load? I desperately tried to

The useful part

With the lofty promise of relieving a mother's mental load, Rose Hirst trials two 'family assistant' apps. It whispers to me as I drift to sleep at night "Did you remember it's mufti day at school tomorrow?" It disrupts my most mundane and joyous moments alike. In the shower I'm reprimanded that the shampoo is less than 10% full and needs replenishing.

How it works

• "Those socks are getting holes in them, they'll need replacing." (Kmart trip?) "These trousers are too small for our youngest." (Donate to charity?
• Leah Ruppanner, a professor of sociology at the University of Melbourne who researches the mental load, warned me that relying on an app may not be a silver bullet for...
• Or pass on to a friend?) The mental load, the behind-the-scenes cognitive work required to successfully run a household, isn't exclusively felt by women, yet research shows that women in...
• To the untrained eye, it's just a pile of washing requiring folding, sorting and putting away – but the crumpled sheets are also littered with hidden mental clutter.
• These micro tasks may seem trivial, but when piled on top of one another, clamouring for attention and action, it can become overwhelming.

What to take from it

So imagine my intrigue when I began being targeted with ads for family assistant apps, making wild yet enticing claims like "the mental load, off your mind". These ambitious sounding promises were alluring to me – a life raft thrown to a woman drowing in admin.

Details worth keeping

While attending a wedding, I'm interrupted by a distant shriek, "your son's passport needs renewing!" The Sisyphean task of laundering my family's clothes takes on a physical form in Mt Washmore, my affectionate name for the towering laundry baskets.