Why Work From Home Mums Can’t Switch Off – And When It Becomes a Bigger Problem

There is a particular kind of tired that comes from working from home with kids. It isn’t just physical. It’s the feeling of never quite finishing anything, because something else is always pulling at your attention.

A work email pings while you’re cutting up someone’s lunch. You’re halfway through a client call when a small voice asks if they can have a snack. You finally sit down to focus, and your brain is already three steps ahead, running through the school pickup, the invoice you haven’t sent, and whether you remembered to turn on the dishwasher.

For most working-from-home mums, this isn’t a bad day. It’s most days.

The good news is that a busy, noisy, multitasking life doesn’t automatically mean something is wrong. Some worry is completely normal, and even useful. But there’s a point where everyday worry stops settling down and starts taking over, and it’s worth knowing what that looks like, because it’s more common than you’d think, and more treatable than you’d expect.

Why Work-From-Home Mums Carry a Heavier Mental Load

Working from home gets sold to us as the dream. No commute. More time with the kids. Flexibility to fit work around family life.

All of that can be true. But it comes with a trade-off that doesn’t get talked about enough.

When you work outside the home, there’s a natural line drawn for you. You leave the house, you do your job, you come home. That line gives your brain somewhere to “land” between roles.

Working from home removes that line completely.

There’s no commute to decompress in. No walk to the car that signals “work is done for today.” Your laptop is on the same kitchen table where your toddler eats breakfast. Your inbox is one tab away from your child’s school portal.

This constant overlap between roles is exactly why working from home increases feelings of anxiety, especially when it’s combined with the demands of raising children, as has been shown in workplace mental health research. Layer parenting on top of that lack of separation, and you get a specific kind of pressure:

• You’re never fully “at work” because a child might need you any moment
• You’re never fully “at home” because work is always one notification away
• Small interruptions (a tantrum, a school sick-day call, an internet outage) derail your concentration just enough to make you feel behind, all day, every day
• There’s no one to physically hand things over to. You’re often the only adult managing both worlds at once

None of this makes you bad at your job or bad at parenting. It just means your nervous system rarely gets a real break. And when a nervous system doesn’t get a break, worry has a way of growing roots.

When Everyday Worry Starts to Become Something More

A bit of worry is part of being a busy, responsible adult. It’s the small voice that reminds you to double check the invoice, or makes sure you don’t forget the excursion form.

The problem starts when worry stops switching off, even once the original reason for it has passed.

This can show up as:

• Lying awake running through tomorrow’s to-do list, even when you’re exhausted
• Feeling tense or “on edge” without being able to point to exactly why
• Snapping at your partner or kids over things that wouldn’t normally bother you
• Making small mistakes at work that you wouldn’t usually make, like missing an email detail or forgetting something you’d normally remember easily
• A constant, low-level sense that something is about to go wrong, even when nothing actually is

When this pattern shows up most days, for six months or more, and touches more than one area of your life, such as work, parenting, finances or health, it has a name. It’s called generalised anxiety, and it’s one of the most common mental health conditions in the country.

According to Australia’s National Study of Mental Health and Wellbeing, anxiety disorders affect 17.2 percent of Australians aged 16 to 85 in any given year, making anxiety the single most common mental health condition nationally. Women are also more likely to be affected than men. If this sounds familiar, you are very much not alone, and there is genuinely effective help available.

A Pattern I See Often in my Psychology Practice

I think of a client I saw a few years ago, a busy professional juggling a demanding job and three young children. She described herself as “just a worrier,” almost apologetically, as though it were a personality flaw rather than something treatable.

By the time we met, she was lying awake most nights running through the next day’s to-do list. She had started snapping at her partner over small things that wouldn’t normally bother her. At work, she was missing details she would never usually miss. There was no single crisis driving any of this. Her mind had simply stopped being able to switch off, most days, for months.

What she was describing was generalised anxiety, a pattern that shows up as persistent worry rather than a single identifiable fear, and it had been building quietly for months before she sought any help.

What struck me most about working with her wasn’t how unusual her situation was. It was how ordinary it was. Swap “demanding job” for “growing home business” and “three young children” for your own kids’ ages, and this could be the week most working-from-home mums have just had.

How to Protect Your Mental Health While Working From Home

You can’t remove every stressor from a busy working-from-home life. But you can build in small habits that help your nervous system get the break it isn’t getting automatically.

Create an artificial “line” between work and home

Since you don’t get a natural commute to mark the end of your workday, build your own. This could be as simple as closing your laptop and physically putting it away, changing your clothes, walking the dog or stepping outside for a few minutes before you switch into “mum mode.”

Build in movement, even in small doses

Movement is one of the simplest, most accessible ways to interrupt a spiralling mind. You don’t need a gym session. Even a short daily walk can calm an overactive nervous system and help you return to your day with a clearer head, especially if you can get outside for it.

Get realistic about your time, not idealistic about it

A lot of the worry that builds up day to day comes from an unrealistic sense of how much should fit into a working day that’s constantly interrupted. If you’re regularly feeling behind no matter how hard you work, setting more realistic daily expectations and protecting your time more deliberately often does more for your stress levels than working harder ever will.

Notice your physical signs early

Restlessness, muscle tension, fatigue that sleep doesn’t fix, and a shorter fuse than usual are often the first signs that worry is building into something bigger. Catching these early, rather than pushing through them, makes a real difference.

Protect at least one small pocket of “off” time

Even 10 minutes where you’re not parenting or working, with your phone out of reach, gives your mind somewhere to land. It won’t fix everything, but it adds up.

When It’s Time to Get Some Extra Support

Self-help strategies genuinely help, but they have a limit. If worry has been a daily presence for months, is touching multiple areas of your life, and the strategies above aren’t shifting it, it’s worth taking that seriously rather than pushing through indefinitely.

It may be time to seek extra support if:

• Worry is there most days, and has been for six months or longer
• It’s affecting your sleep, your relationships, or your ability to concentrate at work
• You feel like you can’t switch your mind off, even when you’re physically resting
• You’ve tried the practical strategies above and nothing seems to be shifting the underlying feeling

If any of this sounds like where you’re at, talking to a registered psychologist can help. Many now offer telehealth sessions you can attend from your own home, which removes the barrier of finding time to travel to an appointment, something that matters when you’re already stretched between work and family.

There is no shame in needing support for this. Anxiety that has built up over months doesn’t usually resolve itself through willpower alone, and reaching out earlier rather than later tends to make treatment faster and more effective.

Final Tips on Relieving Anxiety and Worry when Working From Home

Working from home as a mum comes with a heavier mental load than most people realise, because the usual boundary between work and home simply isn’t there. Some worry is a normal part of that. The key is knowing when it’s tipping into something more.

To help keep everyday worry from building up:

• Create a clear “switch off” point between work and home, even a small one
• Move your body daily, even just a short walk
• Set more realistic expectations of what fits into an interrupted day
• Notice physical signs early, like restlessness, tension and poor sleep
• Protect a small pocket of time that’s just for you

It may be time to seek extra support if:

• Worry is present most days, for six months or longer
• It’s affecting your sleep, relationships, or work performance
• You can’t switch your mind off, even when resting
• The strategies above aren’t shifting how you feel

You’re not “just a worrier.” You’re a mum doing two demanding jobs at once, often in the same room, often at the same time. Taking your mental health seriously is part of doing both of those jobs well.