SAHM and one parent working- What happens when the working parent comes home?

Question

Truthfully, some days I am so exhausted when my husband gets home that I think, "Pheeeww, I can finally sit back for a minute now that someone is home to play with my son!" But my husband is ready to do his own thing when he gets home- watch sports, change clothes, check email, etc. How do you balance the parenting together? Or do you take time off and let the out of home worker become the playful parent?

Answer 1

My husband is pretty good about helping vvith the kids. vve have our certain days, he plays basketball so on the days he has a game then he comes home from vvork, shovvers, checks his email and has his time to relax after vvork before he goes to play ball, on the other days after he gets home from vvork then he gives me some time to relax and have a break. They are tired after a long hard day of vvork but so are vve, so you just have to share your days and allovv both parents to have some time to relax.

Answer 2

I figure when my husband comes home we're exactly in the same place:  both of us have been working all day and both of us would love (and deserve) a break.  But at that hour, breaks are elusive because there's enough to do to keep us both busy.  Usually he plays with the kids since he hasn't had a chance to do that while I make the dinner do the dinner dishes.  Then we divide up the kids so everyone has someone to read to them -- one of us will read to the older kids and one to the younger ones.  When everybody's been read to we all have a half hour to read to ourselves, so that's some break time for both of us, and then the kids go to bed and we both get a real break.

Once a month one of us will take the kids for the entire evening while the other gets a chance to go out and decompress.  Occasionally my wonderful husband will give me an extra evening of two or three hours to myself if he's been traveling for all or part of the week (on the theory that he's gotten quite a few nights to himself, uninterrupted showers, and leisurely meals by then).

Answer 3

My husband works 10-12hrs a day 6 days a week.  When he gets home he takes a shower, changes, eats dinner, plays with our daughter, watch 15min of tv and goes to bed.  Sundays are his only day off and thats when he helps clean and everything else.  If on a day that I need to go to the store or whatever I do when he gets home and he has no prob watching our daughter for the time Im gone.

Answer 4

We have the opposite scenario.  I work all day and my husband watches the baby.  When I get home, I know he is exhausted so I take over baby duty.  I also take care of baby on the weekends.  I know that I will have time for myself when the baby goes to bed.  But I think it is important for the working parent to spend time with the baby and also to give the stay at home parent a break.  

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Answer 5

When my husband comes home he plays with the baby while I finish up dinner. He does take time to unwind but he also helps me out and we do the work pretty much 50/50 the rest of the night.

Answer 6

The same thing happens here.  My hubby is the CIO at his company, but he still comes home every night and sits down at the computer to check his email, chat with people he is working on projects with, and play games.  He was in front of a computer all day long, and he comes home and still wants to be in front of one!  

I'm nag a ton, so I'm always trying to get him to just come home, play with Alex while I finish dinner, we all can eat, and Alex can get ready for bed.  Of course it doesn't happen very well most days, but I keep trying!  I don't mind my hubby being a playful parent, but he *does* need to be a parent.  He can't live all day, every day with only having his son be something in the background that he is never actually responsible for parenting.