An exhausted woman, 33, took to Reddit for some relationship and parenting advice after her husband, 36, revealed he was upset with her lack of planning for Father’s Day.
She explained that the couple have been married for eight years and have three children together aged three, five, and a one-month-old infant.
Having recently welcomed the youngest baby to the world via C-section, the new mum explained that her recovery is “taking longer than she hoped” and has left her “immobile”.
The Reddit user said: “Unless it’s to go to the bathroom or changing or feeding my baby, I’m pretty much always sitting or laying down. I don’t like it, but it’s what my body needs to heal right now.”
Despite the two parents both being on maternity/paternity leave, the father revealed his anger at his wife’s lack of effort on Father’s Day which occurred last weekend.
The woman told fellow Reddit users that while he had done a great job of picking up the slack for all three children since welcoming their new baby, he had reached “wit’s end” on June 18.
In the post, the new mum explained: “On the morning of Father’s Day, I was feeling worse than usual as I had to strain myself the day before to pick up something off the floor and I aggravated my incision. So, I was laid up all day. Again, this meant my husband had to do literally everything that day.
“By the time he got the older kids to bed, I could tell he was irritated and upset. I told him to try and relax for a bit, but then the baby started fussing and he jumped up off the couch, grabbed a pillow, and screamed into it.
“I tried to calm him down, but he just kept freaking out about how he was at his wit’s end and he needs a break and that I couldn’t even find a way to give him a single hour of quiet on Father’s Day. I started crying and he just looked at me and walked away to take care of the baby without saying anything.”
The confused woman asked her husband what he wanted her to do to mark the occasion so soon after giving birth, to which he suggested she could have “looked into a sitter for the kids” or made them sit with her to watch a movie for an hour, so he could have “just a slither of time for himself”.
Shared in the popular Reddit forum “Am I the A******?”, the post attracted a range of comments in which other users shared their opinion. And many agreed that the wife should have planned ahead for her husband’s benefit.
One person wrote: “You are a recovering mother which everyone should understand but I’ve spent 30 seconds reading this and already thought ‘why didn’t she coordinate with a friend or family member etc to take the kids for a portion of the day’. That takes bare minimum effort and shows how you care for your man on his day during this period where he’s been getting the job done.”
Another Reddit user agreed: “She should’ve asked for help from friends or family or gotten a babysitter. And ordered an actual fully cooked meal for delivery instead of expecting her husband to cook steaks.”
However, some forum members shared empathy for the new mum by agreeing that “having a newborn is hard”, and that both parents were equally as “sleep deprived”.
What do you think? Share your thoughts in the comments below.
