‘My wife is exhausted and refuses to take a break from the kids’

“She says if she goes away, the house will be a bomb when she gets home and she’ll have to clean up after all of us,” the dad reveals.

For some mums, it’s easy to get away from the kids.

After all, everyone needs a break.

I recently went to New Zealand for a work trip and I relished every moment: I took baths in the deep tub in my hotel room, went for a swim in the pool, drank wine, ate lovely food, stayed up too late watching Netflix in the king bed.

It was heavenly.

But for some mums, that kind separation is too much, even if it means you return home rested, rejuvenated and ready to take on three kids brawling on the trampoline with a cool-as-a-cucumber demeanour.

Shelly* is one of those mums who doesn’t like to be away from her kids ever.

“My wife is a stay-at-home mum to our kids aged four and three,” her husband Chris wrote on Reddit.

“She’s pretty burnt out watching the kids; she is constantly telling me she’s tired of watching them and doing all the work around the house.”

Chris travels for work and Shelly is clearly overwhelmed.

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Shelly is an exhausted stay-at-home-mum. Photo: iStock

SAHM doesn’t want to be away from kids

Clearly what Shelly needs is a holiday or at least some time to herself. Chris even thinks so. But she won’t go.

“She hasn’t really taken a break away from the kids in four years. I’ve tried, goodness knows I’ve tried to get her to go, she always says she doesn’t think the house will be clean when she comes home.”

Chris wanted to know how he could encourage Shelly to take a much-needed break, and the Reddit community had plenty of suggestions.

Many mums identified with Shelly’s concern that she’d have to clean up after the family upon her return, thus negating the effects of all the relaxing she was meant to be doing.

“As a SAHM who cleaned the living room this morning, took a nap and woke to find the living room completely destroyed and had to clean it again while my husband got ready to leave, Shelly’s worry stood out to me.

“I was grateful for the nap, but it would have been less work to care for the toddler myself and only drag my giant pregnant belly through cleaning the living room once.”

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Some suggested Chris get the kids out of the house to give Shelly some time.

“Take the kids out of the house and let your wife have a break where she decides what to do,” one person said. “Don’t be surprised if the first couple trips leave her feeling off because it is a really weird feeling going from always having kids around to… nothing.”

Originally published as ‘My wife is exhausted and refuses to take a break from the kids’