An Oregon mom decided to check in on how her husband was getting on with their infant daughter’s bedtime after realizing it had been an hour since she had last seen him.
However, when Emrose Collins took a look at what was going on, via the babycam in their daughter’s room, she quickly discovered bedtime had not quite gone to plan. Collins told Newsweek: "I figured they had both fallen asleep since he had been in there for so long, but I heard her talking. When I checked the monitor and saw her with the phone, I just laughed."
Bedtime can be a torturous experience for parents of young children. In 2024, the C.S. Mott Children’s Hospital National Poll on Children’s Health found 1 in 4 parents with children aged between 1 and 6 found bedtime challenging.
As the mother of a 4-month-old son and a daughter, called Kambree, who is almost 2, Collins knows plenty about the trials and tribulations associated with getting them down for the night. On this particular night, Collins had assumed her other half, Patrick, had everything under control. "My daughter had convinced my husband to watch Birds, which is actually the animated movie Rio before bedtime," she said.
After noticing things had gotten a little quiet in the room, she checked in on the babycam to see how bedtime had progressed in the hour since they had gone to her daughter’s bedroom. The answer was that it had not progressed much at all. "He fell asleep at some point and she continued watching," Collins said.
On some level, seeing Patrick asleep wasn’t a huge shock. They do have two children under the age of 2, after all, so he is no doubt sleep-deprived. "My husband falls asleep putting her down often," Collins said. "So I wasn’t expecting to see him asleep and her awake, but the phone did surprise me."
Collins nevertheless decided to share the footage to her TikTok, @emrose.collins, because she "thought it was so funny." "I’ve been posting on TikTok for a couple of months now," she said. "Most of the people who follow me are moms so I thought they would get a laugh and maybe relate!"
The clip went viral, racking up more than 2.4 million views and a raft of comments. "All I’m seeing is you’re getting alone time," one viewer joked. "I think your toddler put him to sleep," another said. A third added: "You should just get bunk beds for them, two kids together."
Collins has been keen to clarify that the phone their daughter was watching the film on had a child lock, meaning she was unable to access any of the other features on it. She also addressed the situation soon after she finished filming through the babycam. "My daughter started yelling Dada when I stopped filming because she realized he was asleep," Collins said. "My husband then woke up and left the room."
It is something they have all enjoyed a good laugh over and, while he may have fallen asleep on the job, Collins is proud of Patrick and everything he does for their kids. "He’s the best dad, and they are truly best friends," she said.
