Mumsnet Talk

standard response thus: "what do you want a medal? you live here too"

I got a 'I don't know how you do it' yesterday. All it took was a night away with the girls. I only had to rewash all the laundry...

YANBU!! This drives me mad too. I tend to say - 'well done! I've done the floor FOR YOU! What do YOU want me to do next?' as my dh is incapable of thinking about/seeing what needs doing. He will ask, 'What do you want me to do?' and tell the kids 'Mummy wants us to do some housework' and doesn't realise he's doing it. Arghhhhhhh. My next one will be better

DH winges about 'all the jobs' he has to do (ie empty dishwasher at night if he hasn't managed to delay running it until the morning so that I have to do it in the daytime). Every now and again I 'flip' and remind him of all the things I do that he takes for granted or doesn't even notice (ie every other job relating to running a house, the finances, organising everything). WHen he eventualy decides perhaps he should help out, he sits there and say 'What needs doing?' like he has lost the use of his eyesight and can't see the dust, faulty lightbulbs etc...
He also started cooking dinner at the weekends and me and DS used to laugh at DH, serving up the food, waiting until we took a mouthful and then asking "Do you like it? What do you think the 'secret' ingredient is that I have used". It was usually just a bog standard meal of the sort I cooked the other 5 days of the week, but for some reason he felt he should have praise for his efforts heaped on him because he had managed to prepare a meal (without having to juggle fetching children from after school clubs etc at the same time)!