'Respect Your Wives As Mothers': Dad's Viral Post Defends Co-Sleeping

A man stands up for his wife when a friend questions their co-sleeping

Parenting has a way of changing your priorities, and that restructuring can put a lot of stress on your relationship with your spouse. One man took to Facebook to reassure his wife – and send a message to men everywhere – that it’s okay to put motherhood first.

When David Brinkley – no, not that one – is used to hearing his wife, Alora, have long phone conversations with her friends. But when he overheard one in which her friend questioned his wife’s co-sleeping, he decided to step in.

Alora’s friend couldn’t believe that David was okay with sharing their bed with their two kids. He heard the friend ask, “Doesn’t your husband hate that? My husband would never let me do that.” He went to Facebook to set the record straight, and wrote a touching tribute to his wife – and mothers everywhere – in the process.

“I just decided to come out as a man and set a few things straight. I do NOT hate any part of what makes my wife the mother that she is. I would NEVER degrade or disregard anything that she feels like doing for my children. Do I have to squeeze into a small corner of the bed sometimes? Yeah? But my God, how beautiful does she look holding my children? Making them feel loved and safe?”

In the post, which has been shared over 258,000 times, it’s obvious how much David appreciates his wife and admires her as a mother. He stresses that all men should respect that aspect of their wives’ identities.

“I just want to say that I am proud of the decisions my wife makes as a mom and I support every single one of them. I would never want to rob her of this time she has or these seasons that are in reality too short to not enjoy. Please respect your wives as mothers.”

Despite his focus on his wife, these same reasons apply to many fathers as well.

“The thing is that our wives only experience these little seasons in motherhood for a short time. They carry our babies, they birth them, they nurture them and maybe while they are little, they let them crawl into our beds and snuggle but eventually our babies get bigger, they grow up, they get “too cool” for snuggles, so why would we as men want to steal a single second of this time from them?”

David’s post articulates exactly why it’s so hard to deny our kids when they climb into our beds, and why maybe we shouldn’t freak out about it. It doesn’t take long for our kids to grow up, and those instances when they want to snuggle quickly grow fewer and farther between.

Parenting requires a lot of sacrifices for both men and women, and sometimes that includes more than just giving up bed space. Sometimes it means allowing your role as a parent to supersede your role as a spouse. It helps if you appreciate and respect that aspect of your relationship as much as David clearly does.

With that kind of perspective, losing a little bit of bed space isn’t such a big deal.