While most parents wake up at the crack of dawn and start the morning routine of sending their children off to school, one dad has revealed he is bucking the trend of getting more beauty sleep.
Posted on Reddit, the anonymous father from the US told Am I the A****** wire that he didn’t want to wake up earlier to help his ‘overwhelmed’ wife by sharing the parenting duties – but emphasized that he was nevertheless ‘an involved and active parent’.
The disgruntled father-of-three, 38, revealed he shares three children with his 37-year-old wife. The children are eight, ten and twelve years old.
Posting about his preference for sleeping in, the father said he and his wife recently got into an argument after she asked him to get up at 6:45 a.m. to get the kids ready for the 7:45 a.m. school bus. In response to her request, he claims that they are old enough to prepare themselves.
In response to his predicament, readers branded him “lazy” and unwilling to help his wife – although many agreed with him that his children should be able to prepare for school.
Most parents have to get up to send their kids to school – and that often means early in the morning – but one dad wasn’t so willing to give up his beauty sleep (stock image)
The man told Reddit’s Am I the A*shole thread that he couldn’t be bothered to kiss his little ones goodbye, but insisted he was “an involved and active parent.”
As it stands, the anonymous father refuses to help his children get ready for school in the morning, which means his wife has to get up early and help them.
He states that she should do less for the children to encourage them to be independent, but in response she berates him for his lack of involvement.
While complaining about his wife’s parenting techniques, the man added that he thinks she is too strict with screen time, explaining that she only lets the kids watch screens for two hours a week.
He argued, “As long as the homework is done, why not (give them screen time) until they go to bed?”
He grumbled about his wife’s ‘constant state of overwhelm’, which makes her ‘irritated very easily’, but claimed the stress stems from ‘self-created gaps’ that he is then asked to fix.
He complained that when he suggested his children could make their own breakfast because they know how to prepare cereal, his wife pushed back, arguing that cereal is not “substantial” enough for a breakfast meal.
The man was happy to do his “fair share for the children or housework,” but feared it would never be enough “because her standards are too high.”
He asked the folks at Reddit if he was being unreasonable by encouraging his wife to do less around the house, for both his sake and her own.
In response, some people have blasted the father-of-three for being “lazy” and urged him to “become a truly involved parent, just like your wife.”
One parent even stepped in and said she had changed her entire job “to go back to school,” leading others to praise her for being a “loving and caring parent.”
Another said: ‘It makes me sad for the kids that OP could be part of the morning and just chooses not to, when so many parents aren’t even given a choice.’
And one user poked fun at the dad’s claim to be an involved and active parent, saying, “I want to sleep in so my eight-year-old self has to get up and get ready for school.” Plus they can watch TV all day long.’
Another Redditor compared their own childhood experience to that of the father’s three children, saying they had been preparing for school since 1st grade. The person added that this was not right and that they had an “abusive mother.”
The person explained, “I came home from school, made my own dinner, did my homework and went to bed.
“But that’s because I had an abusive mother who only wanted me to pay child support. So OP, think about what kind of parent you want to be and adjust accordingly.”
A more sympathetic user told him: ‘Cereals are a healthy breakfast if you buy the right cereal’, but still thought ‘a parent should be awake’.