It can be exhausting taking care of a newborn baby.
In today’s story, one dad takes five days of paternity leave from work so that he can help his wife with the baby. Then he makes a decision that made her angry.
Let’s see what he did and why she’s upset.
I (M) took 5 days off work to help my wife with our 3-month-old son.
For context, I’m the sole provider working a full-time job plus side gigs.
During the first 4 days, I did a good chunk of the caregiving (except for feeding since my wife breastfeeds).
Not perfect, but I was doing substantially more than usual.
He took a break from parenting to play football.
On day 4, I saw some guys playing football in the park and asked my wife if I could join them.
She agreed, though somewhat reluctantly.
I left for about 40 minutes total while the baby was calm.
When I got back, the baby was still feeding and drowsy, but my wife was clearly angry and giving me the silent treatment.
His wife is upset.
When I asked what was wrong, she said it was unfair that I could take breaks like that while she couldn’t.
I acknowledged what she said but didn’t apologize since I honestly didn’t think I’d done anything wrong.
As I was leaving the bedroom, she started going off on me, and I just told her I didn’t know what to say.
It’s been two nights now, and she still won’t talk to me or ask for help with the baby. AITA?
It sounds like his wife needs a break. Maybe he should offer to take the baby for an hour while she does something she wants to do.
Let’s see how Reddit reacted to this story…
The mom needs a break too.
He needs to give his wife a break.
He needs to act like a grown up.
As long as she gets a break too, he can take a break.
He needs to take charge.
He needs to insist that his wife takes a break.
If you enjoyed this story, check out this post about a daughter who invited herself to her parents’ 40th anniversary vacation for all the wrong reasons.
