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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

AIBU - motherhood has ruined men for me

485 replies

Bettercallsaul2024 · 13/05/2024 11:42

I expect I am being unreasonable but since becoming a mum I have gone off men.

I had always adored men but now I see an incompetence I can’t get past. My husband is an ICU consultant - can handle huge pressure and stress but can’t be trusted to pack a fucking bag for a day to the zoo. He can handle the resuscitation of a child but can’t cope when OUR child has a tantrum. (I too am a hospital doctor so feel like I can make the comparison, and I do appreciate the workload of his job). He would never cope being up all night with our ill child yet can do nightshifts in ICU - I don’t get it?!

and it’s not ‘just’ him. I now see it everywhere. All the men in my family, though lovely, have so much less expected of them. Seen as great dads when they take the kids swimming despite the women doing all the parenting the rest of the week plus having a job/career.

sometimes I say to my mum - how are men able to organise complex things like war when they can’t do the sainsburys food shop without ringing their partner at least twice. She reasons that it’s because men usually only have one task to focus on at a time and so can do it well - behind the scenes women are doing EVERYTHING else.

I find myself unattracted to my husband but also all men really. At the park I see dads standing on their phones, getting cross and stressed when their kids are upset after a grazed knee. It’s so ugly to me!

I KNOW I am being unreasonable. But do others feel this way? I know not ALL men. It just so happens it’s ALL men I’ve ever interacted with

YABU: this is a DH thing. Men are just as wonderful as women

YANBU: men wouldn’t last one day as mothers

OP posts:
Sugarcoatedalmonds · 13/05/2024 11:56

God I've been having a tough time with my husband recently about this. I'm relieved I'm not alone!

FrontEnd · 13/05/2024 11:56

You would enjoy a Facebook group named "The bar for men is so low it's a tavern in Hades", @Bettercallsaul2024

WimseyofBalliol · 13/05/2024 11:54

Revelatio · 13/05/2024 11:48

This doesn’t resonate with me at all. My husband and I do similar jobs, he’s probably more competent than me in terms of packing toddler day and nursery bags!! We both pull our weight equally.

This is also true with couples in my close group of friends. Not sure if there is a link, but we all took some level of shared parental leave so each parent had sole care of the baby whilst the other went back to work. I think for us this gave a good perspective so we both got to experience being the one out to work and being the one at home.

This. DH is at least as competent a parent as I am. Both of us have demanding professional jobs.

SilverBranchGoldenPears · 13/05/2024 11:50

It’s (almost) weaponised incompetence. There maybe an element of the multitasking factor you mention, but I think that’s just being charitable.
My highly qualified Engineer DH can’t fold laundry or fill a dishwasher. It’s f@cking irritating.

I have told him that this is nothing but weaponised incompetence and he looks at me blankly like he doesn’t get it.

Diddleyeyeeye · 13/05/2024 11:49

The thing is what you are saying is true. There are much lower expectations of men than women. As you start to get on you eventually adapt and hopefully drag them upwards while you do it. I feel very lucky I have a great husband and some of my male friends are similar but they are far, far from the norm. I keep telling my daughters to have relationships with men capable of hard work but honestly your post shows you can never tell. That said I worked in construction and the sheer physically hard work and effort that some typically male jobs require would not leave much energy for much helping at home but medicine is not one of those jobs.

Revelatio · 13/05/2024 11:48

This doesn’t resonate with me at all. My husband and I do similar jobs, he’s probably more competent than me in terms of packing toddler day and nursery bags!! We both pull our weight equally.

This is also true with couples in my close group of friends. Not sure if there is a link, but we all took some level of shared parental leave so each parent had sole care of the baby whilst the other went back to work. I think for us this gave a good perspective so we both got to experience being the one out to work and being the one at home.

Leafalotta · 13/05/2024 11:48

I know there are plenty of men like you describe but it's unlikely it's every man you ever interact with, I think there's quite a bit of projection going on here because of your husband. This bit for example:

At the park I see dads standing on their phones, getting cross and stressed when their kids are upset after a grazed knee. It’s so ugly to me!

Plenty of women are like this too (myself included on a bad day), I've never observed this as a male thing.

butterflywingss · 13/05/2024 11:48

Exactly how I feel tbh. I am sure there are good men out there and men that do help but the truth is the majority have 101 excuses why they can't do the basics a woman can. For example I had an appointment this morning but I had to get up extra early to clean, get ready and get the kids ready, feed them, dress them while my DH napped it and woke up to just drop off. Many little examples and I do have a go all the time but for some reason men become clueless when it comes to kids. I am sure I will get some hate but this is coming from a very frustrated mum who has to pick up the slack of a dad and I am sure many mums feel the same..

AGlinnerOfHope · 13/05/2024 11:47

I agree. Too many of them seem to think they owe courtesy and diligence at work, but can be halfhearted at home. If a colleague had a meltdown of some kind at work, they’d manage the situation better than balancing the needs of different family members on a day out.

Bettercallsaul2024 · 13/05/2024 11:44

This was partly inspired by the thread about men sulking. Whilst I can think of a few men throughout my life who have sulked like that, I truly can’t think of any women who do

OP posts:
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