By Pace Webb, Family Systems Expert & Maple Certified Onboarding Specialist
If you’ve ever caught yourself in the middle of your day thinking,
“How is it only 2pm? Why does my life feel like a never-ending checklist?”
…then you already understand the problem I’m about to talk about.
For years, I lived in constant motion.
Not flow. (well sometimes, but mainly just forward motion)
The kind of motion that looks productive on the outside, but on the inside feels like your nervous system is running a marathon you never signed up for.
I wasn’t addicted to the chaos – I was conditioned into it.
Like so many of the women and parents I work with now, I’d been raised in a culture that praises being busy as proof that you’re a “good mom,” “good spouse,” “good employee,” or “good human.”
But the more I learned and grew as a leader at work and at home was that real leaders don’t brag about “how slammed” they are. Sure, there are periods of life that are very full and it feels like you’re drinking from a firehose and it’s hard to control, but this shouldn’t be what you secretly aim for to be considered a good parent/employee/mom, etc. And it’s so hard to get rid of this when everyone else around you has this mentality.
Busy-ness is not a badge of honor.
It’s a warning sign your systems are breaking.
And what I know now — that I wish I had understood a decade ago — is this:
Most parents aren’t overwhelmed because they’re doing too little.
They’re overwhelmed because they’re doing too much alone.
That realization changed everything.
You may not know this about me, but I’m a cancer survivor and that gave me a huge perspective shift that life should be pleasurable and enjoyable and not this race to see who can be the busiest. I’m not saying life should be perfect and stress-free, but the goal should be a series of enjoyable moments throughout most days. Or else, what are we even doing here?
I refused to participate in a culture that glorifies burnout.
And instead, I rebuilt my family systems from the ground up.
Where Maple Comes In: The Shift From Mental Load → Shared Load
When I first discovered Maple, it felt like finding the missing puzzle piece I had been trying to carve by hand.
A visual tool that finally lets the whole family see:
- What needs to be done
- Who owns what
- What’s already been handled
- What is coming next
- And what should never again live only in a parent’s head
Maple is the antidote to busy culture for one simple reason:
It replaces chaos with clarity, and solo family management with shared family organization.
Because busy culture thrives on you doing everything.
Maple thrives when you stop doing everything and share the work with others.
It gives structure where overwhelm has been living. (I like to call this “calming the chaos”)
It gives visibility to the invisible work, which gives instant empathy between partners because no one can understand what they cannot see.
It gives your partner actual ownership instead of “helping.”
It teaches your kids responsibility from the earliest age.
And maybe most importantly… it gives you back time that was never meant to be lost in the first place.
The Real Truth: Family Life Isn’t Supposed to Feel Like Survival Mode
You’re not meant to sprint through your day.
You’re not meant to carry the mental tab of 4 or 5 people.
You’re not meant to constantly anticipate needs before anyone else even notices them.
That’s not parenthood.
That’s a broken system.
And busy culture is a smokescreen that keeps people from seeing that.
Once you see the system, you can fix the system.
That’s why I do the work I do now — helping families build systems that support them rather than drain them.
It’s also why I partnered with Maple as a Certified Expert and Onboarding Specialist.
Because Maple is one of the few tools designed to dismantle the mental load instead of making you better at carrying it.
Shared systems redistribute it.
Need Help Getting Maple Running in Your Home?
The Maple Fast-Track Onboarding (30 minutes)
Perfect if you want Maple set up quickly with personalized guidance in a small group.
Most families walk away with their entire system built in under half an hour.
The Maple Family Reset (60 minutes)
A deeper session where we design a customized system for your exact household — tasks, routines, calendars, and shared load structure.
These sessions were created specifically so you don’t just download Maple…
You actually get the transformation Maple is capable of.
Because tools don’t change your home.
Systems do.
And systems only work when they’re shared.
Ready to get your family organized?
Bring clarity and calm to everyday family planning with one shared space for emails, events, tasks, and meal plans.
