‘I can’t be the mum I want to be’: why does parenthood feel so impossible for millennial mothers?

‘Millennial women, it seems, are not trapped by their homes but by an impossible expectation that they maintain everything – career, motherhood, partnership, self-care – simultaneously and without complaint.’ Photograph: Posed by models; Thanasis Zovoilis/Getty Images

Early one morning, feeling desperate, Katherine went on to her phone and asked ChatGPT how to make her life work.

She plugged in her work hours, her husband’s work schedule, the days she had childcare for her three-year-old, the school hours – plus before- and after-school care times – for her six-year-old; the flexibility her job offered her, the supports she had from grandparents, and asked AI if it could help her make things feel a bit better.