Why I Was Inspired To Write 'Tis Not The Season To Be Molly'

Both men and women enjoy my books, but I mainly write my stories for women. Stories women can relate to packed with light-hearted humour. There is one burden most of us bare.

Ever heard of the mental load? If you are a woman in a heterosexual relationship, you are more than likely solely responsible for it, whether you signed up for the job or not. 

In case you are not familiar with it, the mental load is the never ending to do list that runs through your head. It never stops. The things that need to get done in order for the family household to function in some sort of order.

Every single day of the year, most wives and mothers go about their busy days bogged down by weight of the 'to do list' of life. Have we got enough toilet paper? I must book that doctors appointment for Billy. The dogs are due to go to the vet for their vaccinations. What meals should we have this week? I better add butter to this week’s shopping list. Must buy my mother in law a birthday card and post it tomorrow. Did we send that RSVP?

Why do they take all this on? Because if they didn’t, it wouldn’t get done. Sure, their significant others may help, but only if they are asked and the jobs clearly delegated. The wife / mother is the household manager and seems to be the only one who notices what needs to be done and when.

There is one time of the year where the mental load explodes for most women and that time is the silly season. If the mental load of every day daily life wasn’t enough, now there are more chores to add to the list.

To name a few. These include:

Buy Christmas cards

Write out cards

Post cards

Buy presents for everyone (your family, your significant others family, friends, and the children’s schoolteacher)

Wrap and hide presents

Get roped into helping with school parties and concerts

Set up guest room for family coming to stay

Decorate the house and put up the tree

Plan Christmas dinner

Grocery shop for Christmas dinner

Cook Christmas dinner

Clean up after Christmas dinner

You get the picture. It’s exhausting and many of us can relate. Truth be known, even though it is a busy time of year for us women, I love Christmas. I have wanted to write a funny relatable Christmas story for years, so I finally got to work penning this story.  

In this book we meet Molly. A perimenopausal marketing professional, wife, and mother of two young girls. Her lazy husband drives her up the wall, her overbearing mother-in-law gets on her very last nerve, her cheeky but adorable little girls test her patience daily, and her demanding job robs her of her energy.

With the added stress of Christmas fast approaching, Molly becomes overwhelmed by it all. Like many women, she’s been making Christmas magic happen single handedly for years. But this year something is different. She feels completely fed up and can’t cope.  

Is it her hormones? Is she over her marriage? Does she need to consider working part time?

The most wonderful time of the year, my arse. Where the hell are Santa's helpers when she needs them.

‘Tis Not the Season to Be Molly’ will be published in mid-November. So if you enjoy a good Christmas story with humour, watch this space.

Hayley Walsh (c) 2025