My partner and I have an 8-month-old baby. She’s up pretty early, usually around 6:30 a.m. and we’ve both just kind of accepted that we’ll never get to sleep in.
However; my wife works Saturdays under the table at a market while she’s on maternity leave and leaves at about 7:00 a.m.. I get up with the baby like usual, but when she leaves, I graby pillow and a blanket and get in the giant 6×6 playpen with my daughter. I put Mrs Rachel on the TV, and proceed to get cozy and pass the fuck out. I’ll sleep for about an hour, sometimes like…. 90 minutes if my daughter stays happy with Mrs Rachel.
We normally only let her have 10 minutes /day of screen time.
It’s the coziest, best sleep of my week too. The feeling of being safe in the playpen with my daughter while she’s is fully occupied and content is amazing, with no judgement from my wife. I thinky daughter loves it too. I grew up with Saturday morning cartoons and I turned out mostly fine.
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Careful, the baby will be old enough to narc you out before you know it 😂
This is a hard pass for me. The science clear about technology but go off I guess.
Until your daughter, let’s it slip.
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Your baby lets you sleep? She doesn’t bonk you in the face with toys or press on your eyes or any of the hundreds of ways babies will torture you to wake up?
Sounds like a WIN. Take them where you can find them and enjoy your daughter AND your snooze.
Baby is safe and you are taking care of yourself. That is what’s most important. You’re doing great, dad.
Those are the most blissful naps you’ll ever get.
Love it!
Happy (and rested) hubby = happy family.
I’m sure it’s fine, but as stated, they talk before you know it!
Taking naps in the playpen with the baby? Sounds like you’re doing good to me.
You are getting the rest you need while being close and safe with your child.
This is a SIDS death waiting to happen.
Why is it a secret though
90 minutes with Miss Rachel is totally fine. The lying about it is a little iffy, but it’s not hurting her and you are getting some extra sleep. Honestly, that sounds like a fantastic morning ritual. Fluffy blankets, her dad right there, she gets to watch more Miss Rachel like a special treat, and you get to sleep.
yup i’d just set alarms every 15-30 mins to check on her, nothing bad here
Eh, I think it’s not cool.
Wife clearly has put restrictions on screen time because that is what she believes is best for the baby. She’s leaving the home and trusting you to parent in a way that aligns with what (she believes) you’ve BOTH agreed on.
Whether it’s necessary or not is neither here nor there, she believes it is and assumes you will uphold that.
So you’re going back on that and also sleeping in which is something she probably never gets to do BECAUSE she’s upholding the screen time beliefs.
It’s kind of like you’re deceiving her and also being rewarded with something that I’m sure she would also love to have. Feels meh, not earth shattering but would upset me….
This isn’t the right sub for appropriate advice on parenting either as these could possibly be people who don’t understand the nuances.
I used to volunteer to wake up early Saturday mornings and do this with my son. We snuggled on the couch with Ms. Rachel. I got caught once and have one of my favorite pictures of him snuggled up on my chest. Great times!
lol as a new(ish) parent, I find this absolutely hilarious. We joke that Ms Rachel is our third parent. Get that nap, dude. I can’t wait for the update to this when your kiddo narcs to mom!
I have a 2 year old. We eat pretty healthy- I do give him store bought snacks occasionally but I’m much pickier than my husband about what we feed/buy for him. Recently I went through a drive through for coffee with my son… my kiddo from the backseat immediately held his hand out and said “donut??” I was like “what? No, who gave you donuts?” and he said “oh… French fries?”
We went home to my husband and I was like “hi, so how often are you giving (child) donuts and French fries from fast food places???” 😂
Cash in hand?
Working while getting maternity?
Finally a proper confession!
^^I ^^haven’t ^^missed ^^the ^^point ^^here, ^^have ^^I?
Is there a body of advice that suggests limiting screen time to 10 minutes? I’m not a parent of young ones and am not up with the baby fads so honest question.
It seems to me like your rest and your mutual contact time is a much greater benefit to the both of you than an hour or two of extra time with a screen on once a WEEK would be a detriment.
Like, kind of a no brainer unless I am far more misinformed than I realize.
Why is this such a secret?
Surprise your wife one morning by making a nest for two in the playpen and convince her to lay with you while the baby watches TV. Maybe an extra hour or so of rest will help her get on board!
My husband would do the same. Haha get that sleep when you can! We have a system for the weekends. He has one day one and me as well. I get to sleep in one day and he gets the other, plus the whole day to relax
great dad story, except the tax/government fraud part leaves a sour taste in my mouth – Should edit that part out of the story
We both took turns doing this with our youngest. It was the best sleep ever. I’m blows away this a confession. This was just a daily occurrence in our home.
Damn we got lucky cause our child was asleep by 8 and didn’t wake up till 9 next morning. She even slept while feedings at 2am and 4am. Unfortunately she is older now (7) and sleeps at 9 but awake at 6 or 7 complaining she needs breakfast lol
I used to put my feet up and give my daughter the jar of unscented, aqueous cream when I couldn’t keep my eyes open any longer. As long as I could feel her at my feet, getting all her sensory play in+ moisturising and massaging my feet, I’d have a really good 40 winks. Win, win all round in my book.
Saturday morning cartoons with my dad was definitely one of the highlights of my childhood
wife is away check. Getting a nap on Saturday. That is legendary!
No judgement at all… I’m a mom and started this early… now she’s 9 and I’m still able to take the best napssss
This is so sweet. Sometimes a good old nap is what keeps life together. As long as you’re both safe & baby girl doesn’t climb out. It should be ok. This phase won’t last forever, enjoy it while it lasts and keep up the good work!
Gross. Putting your own needs before kids developmental needs. There’s a reason pediatricians recommend limits on screen times for infants.
Enjoy the speech delays in your kid.
I would be careful having a blanket around her if you’re not awake… She’s still at the age where she could suffocate in blankets
Hell yeah, brother.
Starting screen addiction fresh out the womb
Isn’t it dangerous to co-sleep? I know the baby isn’t supposed to be sleeping but I thought you weren’t supposed to risk that before 1 year old? Am I missing something about that?
So um… What’s your wife do under the table exactly? 🫣
This is so bad for baby’s development. The CDC says no screen time unless you’re video chatting under 18 months. Then it’s 1 hour of screen time with adult supervision i.e. interacting with the content with your baby.
You might have enjoyed Saturday morning cartoons when you were an actual child, not an 8 month old baby lol.
I used to catch my husband sleeping in the playpen. Usually getting his face ripped apart, but sleeping and oblivious. I’m still up at 4 every day but it’s just out of habit at this point so I can’t be annoyed about it…
That’s what we did with my kids . Especially when they got older . Figured out a system to keep the front door locked and the fridge.
It will help with independent play .
My kids are now 5 and 7 . If they get up early they get something to snack on or eat what I leave out. I get up around 8am on Saturdays since I work nights
My wife and I switch off. I sleep in Saturday, she sleeps in Sunday. It works pretty well.
Yeah, if I found out my husband was doing this, I’d be pretty pissed off tbh
Some of my favorite childhood memories are morning sleepy snuggles with my dad. He was absolutely not a morning person and worked long hours at his job. I used to crawl in with him on weekends he would put on Comedy Central or something like that and we would hang out getting some extra sleep while my mom did her morning bird thing. It was marvelous!
I think it’s weird that you keep this from your wife. Are you worried that she’d be upset if she knew? Why would she be upset? Because it’s unsafe and lots of screen time?
If you’re not telling your about how you’re parenting your baby while she’s gone makes me feel like you know its not right.
Great that you have a baby who sleeps and also doesn’t rat you out
For ultimate karma get up on Sunday mornings and let your wife sleep in.
that’s honestly genius lol. you’re still there with her, she’s safe, entertained, and you get some much-needed rest. sounds like a win all around don’t beat yourself up for finding a system that works
As a mom, I love this for you. My 3 year old gets up about 6-6:30 am. I grab her and put her in our bed and she has IPad time while I snooze lol.
> I grew up with Saturday morning cartoons and I turned out mostly fine.
Not when you were a baby, for 90 mins straight
I do kinda the same thing, except it’s just when the baby wakes up at 5am and everyone else is sleeping. I take the baby downstairs (9 months old) and give him a bottle and let him sit and watch Mrs. Rachel and play with a bunch of safe toys and I just sleep right next to him. He just kinda knows I’m there and I wake super easily if he makes noise or whines. Easily 60-90 mins extra sleep before he gets a little bored just sitting. It’s rough when he barely sleeps during the night and also wakes up at 5am, I literally cannot actually stay awake and then manage to get through the work day.
I had one hard rule when my children were babies. They go down, I go down. Period. I was stealing sleep, naps , vegging every chance I got because I pulled all the shifts then slugged it out to go to work. A few times my sons would go all night and I’d be a zombie going to work though. Good times.
This is so incredibly dangerous. What happens if you roll over and kill get.
WTF is wrong with you?
My husband did this for me for almost the entire first year of our daughter. I would be up at night with her, but once it hit 4:30am it was his turn. Baby would wake up at 5ish and he would take her downstairs and crawl into the pen with her and he would go back to sleep while Mrs Rachel stepped in for her shift. We joke that we owe her child support at this point. But anyways, he would get an extra 2ish hours of rest or baby time before getting ready for work, and meanwhile I would get a legitimate 3 hours of uninterrupted rest that would make or break the rest of my day. Like real rest too, knowing that if i heard her cry I could doze back off because I knew my husband would be handling it. Now our baby sleeps mostly through the night, but on weekends we take turns letting the other have a saturday to sleep in. It’s a good routine we’ve got going on.
What in the world is Mrs Rachel?
Does your wife know about your partner?
And does your partner know you have a wife? B/c y’know, consistency matters. 🙄
8 months old shouldn’t watch 90 mins of TV plus the 10 min per 10 the other days. Come on.
I would have been so mad if I found this out with my first baby but after I’ve had three now, I’d be asking my husband how he got the baby to leave him alone for that long!
Imagine working for $16.67/hr on Saturdays while postpartum and then coming home to your spouse who lies about their parenting and gets praised for it on reddit
Working smarter, not harder!
Take it! Getting enough sleep with young kids is so hard. Grab it where you can. As long as your child is safe and happy too, it sounds like a win!