Chuck E. Cheese isn’t a typical venue for discussing AI use, but surprisingly, the subject came up organically while making small talk with a mom from my son’s kindergarten class.
At the birthday party we were both attending, parents were sharing how they spent their spring break. This particular mom gave a beautifully detailed response, describing a ten-day road trip: driving to multiple national parks, staying at short-term rentals, and going on kid-friendly hikes.
Amazed and a little frightened by how much work went into planning such a vacation, I asked how she did it. Her response? ChatGPT.
She gushed about how easy it was for ChatGPT to create an itinerary that accounted for her family, including two small children and active grandparents. I was impressed by the practical application of generative AI to alleviate the mental load of planning a family vacation, and immediately began thinking of how other AI-driven programs could help me and my never-ending to-do list.
In the absence of social support for mothers in the US in the form of affordable child care, paid family leave, and equal pay for moms, many families are turning to technology, leaving me and many other overwhelmed women to wonder: How can AI transform the work of motherhood?
“Many parents have turned to generative AI applications like ChatGPT to help with the mental load.”
AI Family Assistants, Not Robo-Nannies
Since ChatGPT was introduced in late 2023, experts from Big Tech, academic institutions, and even YouTubers and TikTokers have opined on how to use AI to be more organized and productive at work, primarily for those who work corporate jobs. Many suggestions involve using AI to better manage your time and organize your calendar–something moms could definitely benefit from.
Indeed, several startups are marketed specifically to parents as “family assistants” designed to help with family management, including calendars of sports practices, PTA meetings, birthday parties, play dates, and more. “The overall mental load of managing a home and family is much broader than just care; it’s about fluid delegation and constant communication,” said Sheila Lirio Marcelo, founder of Care.com, who recently launched Ohai, a startup marketed as an AI household assistant.
While I have yet to utilize Ohai or the many other apps designed for family organization, I already use AI-powered technologies to help my day-to-day mom duties. This includes voice assistants like Siri that on any given day will: set a timer on command (to alert my preschooler when to transition to a new activity), play a song request (to quiet the kids while I’m driving), or add a reminder to my calendar (so I remember to sign up for swim lessons).
Like the mom of my son’s classmate, many parents have turned to generative AI applications like ChatGPT to help with the mental load. Across blog posts and online forums, I’ve found examples of parents, primarily moms, using gen-AI to:
help create weekly meal plans for families, accounting for picky children’s preferences
suggest games and activities to keep children busy (ironically this is usually framed as a way to limit kids’ screen time)
draft emails and newsletters for school and other child-related reasons
“We need to be discerning about how we integrate AI into our families’ lives.”
Parental Advisory: Use AI Responsibly
In August 2024, the US Surgeon General issued an advisory on the health and mental well-being of parents across the country. The advisory describes how parents now work many more hours than in 1985 but also spend many more hours every week on primary child care.
Given the tremendous stress of parenting in 2025, it’s no wonder that parents are seeking help from AI products. However, as moms and dads, we need to be discerning about how we integrate AI into our families’ lives. While there are many AI products available, the lack of regulation of these products means that every company sets its own standard for safety and responsibility.
Data privacy should be a priority consideration when engaging with any AI product, but especially when dealing with sensitive personal data about children. For an AI family assistant to be effective, the app will need access to facets of your life. Before sharing anything, understand if and how that data will be kept safe. How does the company store its data? Does it share any of your data with third-parties? Will your data be used by the company to further train its model?
Before we can start using AI to benefit our families, we need to better understand how AI works and what it can do. Since ChatGPT can summarize blog posts about visiting Yosemite National Park and generate a three-day itinerary, it can be easy to forget that the app is predicting the response we want based on the massive amounts of data in its model. But we must remember, it’s designed to predict and generate a text-based response to our prompt. It does not inherently “know” the answer.
Setting an Example
As technology evolves, overwhelmed parents continue to hope for an all-in-one solution like Rosey the Robot from The Jetsons. Until then, we can take advantage of available AI apps and utilize them to lighten the mental load of motherhood. And like with all parenting advice, maintain a healthy dose of skepticism when a parenting expert, podcast, or technology app appears to have all the answers.
