Parents share opinions on whether a commute home can be considered a break or not

A parent might love their kid but catering to their needs at all times can be overwhelming. At such times, many people wonder what can be considered as a break for a parent. On a podcast, people wondered if a commute home from work could be regarded as as break or not. The Mom Room Podcast hosted by Renee Reina who goes by @thereneereina on TikTok revisited a podcast episode with @jimmyknowles on the topic and they have an interesting perspective on the same.

"Anybody that says that a commute is not a break, I can promise you, you're not the default parent at home with the kids or on the weekends or whenever," Knowles began. "You are not the default parent. I promise you that. Because the default parent would 100% consider that a break," he added. "If you don't consider a commuter break, consider yourself lucky because some people do consider that a break when you're home with little kids," Reina weighed in.

"We as men, like, we can't do this. This is not 1940 anymore. Like, do not come home and need a decompression time. Your drive home was the decompression time. That was 30 minutes. You didn't have any babies crawling at you. You didn't have people screaming at you. You weren't handing out any snacks and you didn't have to make dinner," the podcast creator and dad explained through the video. The video received over 168k views and more than 11.4k likes. People took to the comments section of the video to express their opinions. While some people felt that the commute along with several other things that are conventionally exhausting was a break for them, others felt that the commute was not a break.

@dorriehwilhelm joked, "I'm the default parent. Some days my break is from the time I strap her in, close her car door and walk around the car to get in myself." @divorceguru wrote, "The real test: Do you consider going into hospital for surgery a break? Are you thinking fondly of sleeping alone and having every meal in bed while watching TV? Yeah…" @the_royal_jelly_kitchen commented, "My husband and I had this exact conversation when our kids were under 5. I said, 'I would LOVE to sit in traffic for 40 min listening to a podcast alone !'" @aslhinicks shared, "Default parent with a long commute in traffic. It’s not a break, it’s just different stress. I have to plan life for the household around the long commute and I miss a lot of time in places I’m needed."

@jennifercastillo156 remarked, "I didn't consider my commute a break because I was trying to get home as fast as I could. Because I knew when I got home I'd immediately have to cook dinner, clean and help with homework. The faster I could get that done, the faster I'd get my break. My commute was stressing about my 2nd job at home." @lochfiodh felt, "This! For years my ex would fight me on this, saying he needed his alone time when he got home after his 45-minute commute! I would ask when is MY alone time? *Crickets.*"

You can follow Renee Reina (@thereneereina) on TikTok for more parenting content.