Ask any parent and they’ll tell you that the laundry list of daily tasks is relentless. Now, some are turning to a new kind of support system: artificial intelligence.
One Swiss mom has recently gone viral on TikTok for “co-parenting” her child with the help of ChatGPT. Lilian Schmidt, a corporate brand strategist based in Zurich, began sharing her AI prompts earlier this year. Since then, she’s built a community of over 21,000 followers who swear by her tips for navigating the highs and lows of parenthood.
Schmidt has a partner, but with both of them working full-time, she found herself increasingly burnt out by the mental load of parenting their 3-year-old. So she turned to ChatGPT.
Whether it’s generating imaginative bedtime stories, creating cleaning schedules, offering advice on sleep regressions, or planning meals based on what’s in the fridge, the AI helped her offload the logistics of parenting—freeing her up to simply be present with her daughter. “I feel like I’m cheating at mom life,” she wrote in one post.
Parental stress, the U.S. Surgeon General warned earlier this year, is a public health crisis. Parents are consistently more likely than other adults to report high levels of stress, so it’s no surprise that many are seeking creative solutions to manage the load.
“ChatGPT literally helped me with breastfeeding, and how to decorate my daughter’s birthday cake,” one commenter wrote under Schmidt’s video. “ChatGPT is carrying the weight of my family at this point,” another added.
@heylilianschmidt
HERE’S EXACTLY HOW I GOT HERE👇 This is the version of mom life I used to think was impossible. I took me 3 years to get here, because nothing worked: 🚫 Waking up before the kids 🚫 Ruthless declutterring 🚫 Having a new routine Whatever I tried, the mental load was still there – stressing me out and preventing me from being fully present with my kids and enjoying our little life 😢 Until I thought: what if someone (or something) could carry the mental load FOR me? I started playing around with ChatGPT – and it didn’t just become a tool. It became my mom assistant, my co-parent, my second brain when mine‘s filled with cotton candy and empty batteries 🪫 Wanna try and see for yourself? 🎁 COMMENT “prompts” to get my free AI Mom Magic Starter Kit with 7 ChatGPT prompts I use every single week to save time, stay sane, and make everyday life feel more ✨magical✨ (or grab it straight from my bio!) Your motherhood gets to feel like this, too 🫶 #wokeuplikethis #morningroutine #toddlermom #mentalload #chatgpt #chatgptformoms #momhacks
♬ inside out theme – Santiago Melo
With 2.5 billion prompts made every day in ChatGPT, according to a recent Axios scoop, each day users are coming up with new ways AI can slot into their daily lives—from therapist to stylist to co-parent.
But not everyone is on board with AI-assisted parenting. “Is it just me, or is it a problem that women feel relief turning to AI instead of their partners?” one commenter asked. Others raised concerns about the environmental cost of AI, and what that might mean for the next generation.
