Daddy don't do bedtime

 

My husband works Monday thru Friday from 12pm – 9pm sometimes when they offer overtime he is at work from 9am – 9pm, which lately has been very often (thank goodness).  We are blessed to have the work and the overtime in these trying times for most.

However, daddy does not understand the importance of bedtime routine on the weekends.  Mommy runs a much tighter ship during the week to get 2 autistic pre-schoolers to bed.  In the autism family ritual and routine are very important to keep the domestic home front in bliss.

With all of this said, I need you all to know that if I ever win the LOTTO or MONEY BALL, the first purchase I am making is to get my husband a HEARING AIDE.  He spent many years in high rise construction, and flat out the fucker is half deaf.  He can not hear anything.  He raises the volume of everywhere to an unbearable level.

So when my husband is home on the weekends, the TV is loud, his voice is loud, the kids are loud, the toys are loud, and by Sunday I’m ready to shoot myself. 

Monday thru Friday during the week, at about 7pm, when the baths are completed, the TV’s are off, the soft music is on, we are playing gently in the living room and I move one child to his bedroom, and the 3 year old I have to lie down with (if you’re a judgemental parent that wants to tell me I shouldn’t do that, stop reading now).   Basically after reading a couple books and Franklin going to be to “Finding Nemo” or Jungle Book videos nightly, they are asleep by 8:30.

Daddy doesn’t understand “wind down” time.  When I start the evening routine, I have lights off, TV off, and softer music or no music is playing in the house.  When daddy is here, every frigging light is on, the TV’s are BLARING at a level that make me psychotic, and he is making the kids wild by chasing them and making them excited. So on the weekends it is after 10 before I get them to sleep or to bed. 

I can not stop the fun he is having with the kids, but this level of loud and play with the kids at bedtime has got to stop.  I guess if he had to put the kids to bed himself, he might actually get it.  But he really doesn’t, because sometimes he is asleep before the kids.  Good God, I know I’m the only one in this house awake most of the time. 

No wonder I’m yelling at everyone half the time.

I’m still buying a hearing aid first thing if I win the lotto.

Rebecca