Most people need some alone time to recharge, especially when you’re a parent. But what happens when you no longer have quality time with your partner?

In this case, a man complains that his significant other demands a bit more attention than he feels comfortable with, so he’d rather spend more time alone.

He told her so, but she feels hurt.

What would you do in a similar situation?

Let’s see how things played out.

AITA for not playing video games or watching any engaging shows while SO is awake because I get annoyed when interrupted?

I am 38/M living with my SO of 8 years and our daughter(7) and we have her other 3 kids(17/F, 16/m, and 14/m) about half the time.

She works first shift and gets home around 4 pm and goes to bed about 9 pm.

We usually both help with dinner and I do my best to keep the kids to a low roar so she can play a few hours of games at night (Sims, Animal Crossing, etc).

I would also play a video game or watch YouTube videos most of the time, as we have side by side tv setups in living room.

But this setup might not be working for him.

I tend to get deeply focused on whatever it is I’m doing and get annoyed easily if I get interrupted.

My SO frequently will start talking to me about her day, or a book she is reading while I’m focused on something else and notice I was annoyed by my facial expression and get upset.

I didn’t say anything or sigh, or any other outward sign that I was annoyed. Just my face, unintentionally.

This would cause a big argument that at times lasted days.

He came up with a strategy.

After this happened a few times I stopped playing or watching anything engaging while she was still awake to prevent the entire situation.

If I’m not engaged in a task, I can’t be interrupted and therefore, won’t be annoyed, right?

This has been working well, until tonight.

I had put on an 8 minute video after we had spent about an hour talking and making dinner, and she interrupted, told me stories about her work for a while, then noticed my face looked annoyed, and I was slightly annoyed at her timing but that’s all.

He tried talking to her, but she doesn’t understand him.

We started arguing and I told her about how I haven’t been doing engaging tasks while she’s awake to prevent this exactly and she is now upset to find out this information, but I don’t know why.

I feel like I made the most logical choice to prevent an argument and it was working for the most part.

AITA?

He needs to communicate his needs more confidently, and she needs to respect his need for uninterrupted alone time.

Let’s see how Reddit feels about this.

A reader shares their thoughts.

Something to consider.

Food for thought.

Yikes.

He will miss these moments.

Yup.

They need to talk like adults.

She sounds like she misses him, while he needs some extra time alone.

If you thought that was an interesting story, check out what happened when a family gave their in-laws a free place to stay in exchange for babysitting, but things changed when they don’t hold up their end of the bargain.