Overwhelmed new dad is losing himself binging TV
Hi all. My neurodivergent partner (29M) and I (F30) have a 7 week old baby boy. I am on maternity leave for 4 months and my partner does not work, so we are both at home currently. One thing is bothering me about this time we have together though - my partner's tv time.
My partner has always been a big TV binger - he will binge shows for 12+ hours at a time, only stopping to sleep, then resume once he awakens for days and days on end. This has always frustrated me, but usually I either do something else or, if we are watching something together, I push for regular breaks.
However, we now have a 7 week old baby and I am finding this trait more troubling. While my partner is mostly present for my son if he actively needs him (e.g., crying while I am showering or cooking), I am finding my partner is not spending much quality time with me or our son, in favor of just watching episode after episode of TV. He has admitted this is because he is overwhelmed with being a parent and the TV helps him forget his troubles and relax.
We have had a few stressful nights where I have slept in another room with baby, as the TV in the bedroom is still on late at night and likely overstimulating baby. After some firm words, he agreed to move downstairs tonight and watch TV in the living room instead so I can get baby to bed, but I worry that isn't really a fix and just means he will stay up even later watching TV.
I have a really limited time off for us to spend as a family with our newborn, and I worry he will look back on this time and regret that he wasnt as involved as he could have been and wasted the time he has just watching random TV shows. I really want to understand how I can help him reduce his watch time and recognise he will regret wasting this time this way.