Juggling work and kids can be a true balancing act for parents, and it gets even more complicated when the parents don’t agree about what to prioritize.

In today’s story, busy parents don’t see eye to eye about whether to prioritize sleep or going out, and the wife does not want to cancel her plans.

Let’s read all the details.

AITA for going out when my husband has to work the next day?

Husband (32m) and I (34f) both work full time day jobs M-F.

He works a second job a couple Saturdays a month so we can (barely) afford to keep our 3m and 4f in preschool.

When he has work on a Saturday, he expects me to stay home and be in charge of the monitor so he doesn’t have to because he wakes up around 5:30 for work and works 12 hours.

For context, kids are still on a monitor because the master is two levels below the kids’ rooms.

They hardly even need the monitor.

I think that it’s unreasonable.

I rarely get to see my friends, and it’s not like our kids wake up at night—they’ve been excellent sleepers since they were each 3 months old.

The only time one of us has to go in at night is when a kid is sick or has a nightmare, both of which are rare.

She’s not out very late.

Even so, I never get back after 10pm.

And he goes to bed at 8 right after the kids, so it’s not like he can’t get a head start either.

Additionally, we both get up before 6 for our day jobs and he goes to his hobby every Thursday, often staying out until 10 or later.

And then gets up for work Friday with no issues.

She knows he’s going to want her to cancel her plans.

Last time I tried to go out a night before his second job because I wanted to go buy a dress for a friend’s wedding that was two days later (because I had no other time to shop).

He FREAKED out at 8pm telling me I was ridiculous and needed to come home THAT MINUTE.

Now I’ve been up since 3:45am because I realized he works tomorrow (Saturday) and I accidentally scheduled a meetup with my friends at 7pm tonight, just before the kids go to sleep.

He’s going to be insufferable and insist I cancel which makes me mad to no end.

We do sleep in separate rooms (have since my first pregnancy) so it’s not like I’m barging in after he’s asleep.

That does sound like a stressful situation.

She deserves a chance to go out once in awhile, but I can understand her husband’s perspective too.

It’s hard to work and keep an eye on the kids at the same time.

Let’s see how Reddit responded to this story.

Exactly – it doesn’t make sense.

Having a relative babysit is a great idea!

Here’s another suggestion.

She should be able to go out with her friends.

Her husband needs to learn to compromise.

Everyone needs some downtime.

If you enjoyed that story, read this one about a mom who was forced to bring her three kids with her to apply for government benefits, but ended up getting the job of her dreams.