MANY say parenting is one of the biggest joys in life – but that doesn’t mean they don’t appreciate a break when they can grab one.
But one dad has sparked a debate on Reddit after he demanded mornings off from childcare.
He claimed that he should sometimes get an extra hour in bed while his wife cares for their daughter because he’d prefer not to have to nap throughout the day.
Users of the discussion site were torn, with some jumping to his defence, and others claiming he needs to ‘get a grip.’
In the anonymous post, the man wrote: “My wife and I have a six-month-old baby girl.
“She’s mostly a stay-at-home mum, she works two half days a week and her sister watches the baby. I work full-time and go to school one day a week.
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“We’ve always had an arrangement where she takes care of the household duties, (cooking, cleaning, and now baby care), while I happily support her monetarily.
“Honestly, we are both living our dream life and my wife does an absolutely spectacular job taking care of me and our little one.
“On the weekends, we share baby duty. However, our girl has hit a bit of a sleep regression, waking up every two hours – since my wife breastfeeds, she’s always taken care of the baby full-time overnight.
“She’s a light sleeper and unfortunately has insomnia, whereas I am a deep sleeper and wouldn’t wake up for baby cries anyways.
“Recently my wife has been asking me to wake up with the baby both days on the weekends so she can get an extra hour of sleep.
“Baby wakes up around 7 am. I get the baby dressed and take over for that hour.
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“But sometimes, I want to be the one that gets to sleep in an extra hour.”
He goes on to explain how the topic has caused arguments between him and his wife, adding: “She says while she’s happy to let me nap during the day, she really needs that hour because she can’t nap like I can.
“We got into an argument about it, and she said I’m being very insensitive when I know she is very exhausted and can’t nap during the day and she struggles going back to sleep every time the baby wakes up.
“I’m exhausted too, work wears me out, and school days are long and I sometimes want the hour in the morning. I don’t want to spend my off time napping, I want to play video games and chill out.”
The post sparked a huge debate about who was being insensitive, with more than 13,500 people sharing their opinion via the vote.
I don’t want to spend my off time napping, I want to play video games and chill out.
Anonymous
One user took the wife’s side, writing: “If you did not want to make sacrifices personally, physically, financially, emotionally, and mentally, then you should not have had a child.
“I hope you get a grip on this and sort out your priorities so that this baby has a healthy 18 years living with you.”
Another said: “I’m never certain why people choose to have kids and then complain how hard it is. Yah.
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“ Like, duh, being a parent is hard. But this is what you asked for. Once you choose to bring a life into this world, that child becomes YOUR world.”
Someone else commented: “If she’s taking all the night duty because you don’t wake up, then you get the morning duty when you do wake up so she can catch up on her lost sleep in the night. You want a morning off, give her a night off.”
