AITA for telling my wife I need an hour to myself after work?

I (35M) work 11-hour days from 7 am to 6 pm, Monday to Friday. My work is exhausting, and I'm typically constantly busy for those 11 hours, except for a half-hour lunch break.

My wife (33F) is a stay-at-home mom and takes care of our 4 and 2-year-old children; her routine is less hectic than mine. For the past four years, as soon as I got home around 6:30, I would immediately start helping with dinner (my wife and I eat a later dinner than our kids) and helping take care of the kids. Once the kids were asleep, I had to do work from home until I went to sleep. I was okay with this, even though I was exhausted, because I understood that sacrifices had to be made. However, I am now completely burning out.

I told my wife that I feel like I need an hour to myself when I get home from work to unwind, so I am not in a permanent state of stress and exhaustion. I have literally zero free time on weekdays. I offered to allow her a break from 7:30 to 8:30 while I put the kids to bed, but she didn't like that idea since it would involve my only time with the kids being putting them to bed, and then she would never be involved in that.

I understand her perspective, but I also can't keep continuing like this. I feel like I need an hour off to do my own thing so I don't go crazy. My wife thinks that the most important thing is me spending some time with my children, not just putting them to sleep, and that we need to make sacrifices for the next few years until they become more independent. I still haven't budged from my request since I am in a state of burnout. AITA?

Posted Nov 2, 2023, 1:28 AM UTC

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