Men and their inability to multi task - grrr!! anyone else?

[xenabelly]

Just wanted a bit of a moan really. My hubby is great, he is a wonderful father and gets stuck in with doing anything when looking after kids and he also cleans house/washing up/bathrooms etc etc BUT seems incapable of doing any of them combined.

For example, I went to work for a couple of hours for a meeting the other day and left him with 3yr old and 11wk old baby. When i get home, baby is fast asleep on his knee,not being cuddled, just panned out and he's watching cricket. 3yr old is playing happily in her bedroom. The house looks like a bombs hit it, toys everywhere, dirty/wet clothes on floor (eg bibs,vests). Kitchen has pots all over and no bottles have been sterilised so none ready for next feed.

I asked him why he hadn't done anything in the house and he looked most offended and said 'i've been looking after the kids' !!??!!

Is it just me or when you are minding kids, as soon as they are settled I grab the opportunity to bung some washing in or sterilise bottles, tidy toys up - something!!

It really bugs me how he can only do one job at a time. anyone else's bloke like this?

[Runninglate]

yup.

It drives me insane.

Today he had hold of DD (3 months) and got cross witgh me because I didn't remove a toy from her buggy so he could lie her down in it...... what does he think I do when I'm on my own??

[xenabelly]

LOL!! That's exactly the kind of thing my hubby does - if he's putting baby to bed, he makes me lie his sleeping bag out in the correct position unzipped - what do i do on the nights he is out?

Men - eh?

[Runninglate]

That too! Oh yes - and when he's here to bath DD, I have to run the bath and get towels ready etc etc and PJs......I may as well do the bath itself too.

[DontlookatmeImshy]

Ican't even remember what it was now but I did something earlier today and dh said
"Oh I didn't realise you were doing X as well" as if he was suprised the two things could be done at the same time.

I just smiled sweetly at him and said "Multitasking dear, multitasking"

[MoosMa]

My DH is useless at that too, but he does appreciate that I can do it and has looked goggle-eyed a few times. For example this morning I was eating my breakfast, feeding DD1 (19 months) her breakfast, giving DD2 (6 weeks) her bottle and working the washing machine with my toe. He looked quite .

[xenabelly]

brilliant!

The other day I was on phone to bank (balanced on shoulder), holding babies bottle in his mouth with my chin and typing up a document on computer....wasn't thinking anything of it until hubby walked in room and said 'wow, how do you do that all at once?' - was pleased he'd noticed!

[princesscc]

My dh is always in awe of how I can be having a conversation with my best friend and still know what he is talking about to someone else!

[adath]

All of these as soo my DP.
Just a few months ago he went to one shop on the high street he said he would meet me at the chemist my next stop and I found him waiting with the children outside because he couldn't manage in the shop by himself, he obviously think I only take the children out one at a time. Also that someone else empties the bin for me when I wash up, that someone cleans the kitchen for me before I cook, that a fairy comes in and does the housework while I lay with the children.
The list is endless.

I am pretty sure he also thinks the aforementioned fairy picks up his dirty washing from the bedroom floor instead of the laundry basket and washes it but that is a whole other thread.

[gemmiegoatEGGS]

I actually just read an article about multi -tasking in New Scientist. It turns out ther is no biological difference in men and women's ability to multitask, so they can stop using the "Well, i AM a bloke" excuse...

The article actually reckons that we (the species) are not actually as good at multi tasking as we think, we just underperform at more than one task simultaneously!

As for lazy old DHs, write them a list. I find it best to be very specific if u want them to actually do things properly!

[hk78]

i think it's so common as to be normal! like walking and talking at the same time is so difficult.

there's a book about it called 'why men don't listen and women can't read maps' it's all about how our brains are wired differently (i.e. ours are wired up, theirs aren't)

e.g. dh will decide he's going to have some toast, so he will go around getting everything ready first(get bread, get butter, knife, plate, make tea to go with it etc) then he puts the (electric) grill on to heat up...last!

then when it's eventually done, he will be so consumed by it that he always forgets to turn it off.

if you point this out, you're nagging.


another........put basket of neatly folded clean washing across the bottom of the stairs so it's clear that i want the next person to go upstairs to take it up with them.

he will step over it. or on a good day, he will say 'what's this basket here for?'
we've been together more than a decade, how many loads of washing have been done in that time? you need to explain every little thing.

[ChelseaDagger]

EX-P amazed me once by asking me to stop talking to him while he was putting his socks on - because he couldn't concentrate. FFS socks are not complicated!

[maggi]

I monitored the pasta cooking on the stove, spooned baby food into an 8month old, listened to 3 children in the next room and split them up when an arguement started, had a conversation in gesture language with my non English speaking foster son, whilst laying the table and searching the cupboards for something for pudding. Just an ordinary 5 minutes of my day.

My dh lay on the sofa with a cat on his belly that he didn't want to disturb.

[meowmix]

We call it the kettle syndrome.

Me: fill kettle, put to boil, tea in pot, cups out, empty and reload dishwasher, quick tidy of kitchen, water into teapot, plan meal for that night and empty bin, pour tea, add milk and wipe away inevitable spilt milk. Drink tea

Him: Fil kettle, put on to boil. Wait staring at kettle vaguely. Kettle boils. Shout to wife for teapot. Find teapot after five minutes of looking (its next to kettle). Shout re whereabouts of tea. Find tea by teapot. Wonder how to transplant tea to pot and try shaking it out of caddy. Swear. Realise water now cooled. Reboil kettle. Wait staring blankly. Fill teapot. Set timer for ten mins. Wait staring blankly. Turn off timer. Wonder where cups are. Find them after five minutes in usual place. Pour tea. Swear. look for tea strainer, shout for wife. Look in drawer as directed. Find strainer. Pour tea from cup to teapot. Repour through strainer. Get milk, add. Leave milk on side. Leave room with own cup only. Get sent back through to fetch wife's cup. Drink tea.

Its tiring being a man

[cathcart]

lol! all sounds so familiar - don't know weyher to laugh or cry in the knowledge that there is no hope!

[cathcart]

rofl at chelseas exp!!

[JoshandJamie]

I posted on this exact subject the other day here . So you have my sympathies

I love the Kettle analogy. So true.