How do levels of cognitive household labor – the “mental load” involved in anticipating, fulfilling, and monitoring household needs – affect political engagement? The mental load is thought to be distinct from the physical tasks of e.g., cooking, cleaning and shopping, and disproportionately undertaken by women. Thus far, the few studies addressing this topic have used qualitative methods to define and document it, and the topic has yet to be studied in political science research. As a result, we may be underestimating household gender gaps and their impact on political equality. To investigate this question, I field a descriptive survey of political engagement and household mental and physical labor to parents in the United States. One reason that research on the mental load has been qualitative thus far is that it is difficult to quantify mental work. It is not well-characterized by questions asked in, e.g., household time-use studies. My survey’s novel approach uses a series of questions that ask about who in the household does different types of cognitive labor tasks. I argue that women are likely to have higher “mental loads” than men, and that large mental loads are likely to be negatively associated with political engagement. The study also explores the role of household and individual-level characteristics, including relative income between partners, education, sexuality, and gender identities. The findings from this study will offer new empirical evidence about a gender gap which is currently hidden, and its consequences for gender equality in democratic life.