Kids opened their presents without me?

A Redditor shared their frustration over a Christmas morning mishap. They woke up to find their kids had already opened their presents without them, leaving the wife devastated. Despite spending hours preparing the gifts and wrapping them with care, she felt robbed of the special moment of seeing her children’s excitement. Her husband, who usually respects her need for sleep, didn’t wake her up, claiming he never does. Now, she’s struggling with hurt feelings and disappointment. To read the full story, continue below…

‘ Kids opened their presents without me?’

My husband is usually a great husband and father, but I am so effing pissed right now. I don’t think I’ve ever been this mad. I woke up this morning around 8:30 when I heard the kids running around. I knew they would be eager to open their Christmas presents so I got up immediately.

I have a lot of trouble sleeping for various reasons so my husband lets me sleep in every morning and watches the kids until I wake up naturally or I have to get up to help get the kids ready for the day. He’s alone with them for half an hour to an hour. He knows what time to wake me up if I oversleep.

So I come into the living room and there is wrapping paper everywhere. All the presents are already unwrapped and the kids (5 and 7) are playing with them. I immediately started crying and walked back into the bedroom where my sadness also turned into anger, and I started screaming like crazy. I am so, so mad.

I spent so much time, thinking about what to get the kids, ordering it or driving around to find it in the stores, wrapping them and everything, and I feel like I was completely deprived of the joy of seeing their faces when they open their presents, which is one the best parts of Christmas. My husband said he videotaped it.

I screamed at him why he either couldn’t make the kids wait, or he could’ve just come and woken me up. He just said “I never wake you up in the morning” I said “it’s f**king Christmas morning. You didn’t think I wanted to watch the kids unwrap the presents” and I called him an a**hole.

He just said sorry, he didn’t say I overreacted. I’m really hurt right now and I don’t even know how to get over it. I don’t feel like doing anything Christmasy today. I’m so disappointed in everybody.
I guess this was more of a rant to get this off my chest, but you can certainly tell me if I was the a**hole or not. Also, if you have any suggestions on how to mediate my hurt feelings, that would be really great. I hope you all have a merry Christmas.

Let’s dive into the reactions from Reddit:

Tessie1966 −  Our rule for Christmas morning with our kids was always wait until mom and dad get up and make coffee before opening presents. They learned how to make coffee at an early age to speed up the process.

ClauClauS −  How has this been handled previous years? Did he wake you up then?

corkscrew-duckpenis −  Have five kids, four to sixteen. Wife was up until four a.m. wrapping and our smallest ones are relentless, so I slept on a mat at the top of the stairs and held the line until she was awake to do presents.
EDIT: my goodness you guys. I, too, was up all night doing Christmas s**t. stop impugning my holiday integrity.

IntelligentDot4794 −  Dad was inconsiderate. The kids could have been told they could open one and then they have to help make breakfast and wake mom when it is ready. I bet mom is mostly angry because she is expected to do all the work but she is not included in any of the fun.

Current-Photo2857 −  Info: Your kids are 5 and 7; this isn’t your first family Christmas. What has happened on previous years? I’m assuming you didn’t sleep through them?

Savings-Ad-3607 −  You have every right to be upset with your husband. However your attitude will ruin Christmas for your kids. Iike be mad at your husband but wait till Christmas is done for your kids sake.

Incognito0925 −  NTA but, since you’re German AND have trouble sleeping (and probably being awake in the morning), I would consider going back to your roots and opening presents on the evening of the 24th. That way you can’t miss it and you pass on a bit of your cultural heritage to your kids. That’s just a suggestion of course and I know that Ratschläge sind auch Schläge.

pixie-ann −  NTA I’m really surprised by all the Y T A s. Maybe it’s just how I was raised but we had the very strict rule that you wait until EVERYONE is awake before opening presents. I really feel your pain here OP. So much bloody time and effort goes to the thought process of choosing gifts, buying them, budgeting for them, wrapping them, placing them under the tree.

To have the joy of watching your kids open them taken away because the family couldn’t wait a couple of hours for you to wake up would be an absolute kick in the teeth to all your effort. Your husband really truly fucked up here. Did he honestly think you would be okay with this? That you would be happy they did this? It would have been a valuable lesson in patience and consideration for the kids too.

EarlyBirdWithAWorm −  Husband/Father here. NTA! Your husband sounds like a d**bass. Of course he should have woken you once the kids were awake. F**king amateur hour over there. What a chump.

gringaellie −  My husband slept in this morning. I told him at 9.45am that if he wasn’t up by 10am, the kids would be opening their presents without him. The kids had been up since 7am looking at the presents. They know they have to wait for both parents, and have done since they were toddlers.