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AIBU?

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DH refuses to measure bottles

209 replies

CharmingDryad · 06/06/2025 15:57

DH refuses to measure the water and formula scoops when making bottles for our baby. The bottles have measurement lines on there. You just pour to your desired line, and sometimes pour a little out if it’s too much. But he says that’s too difficult to do. He also refuses to use the built-in level in the formula can to make the scoops exact so you know how much you’re giving her. He says, “that’s not how cooking works.” And “I just eyeball it.” He tries to eyeball the measurement, but it’s really not difficult to go ahead and use the level. Yet he refuses.

AIBU to demand he measure properly? Or am I being too fastidious?

OP posts:
Fingernailbiter · 06/06/2025 18:15

CharmingDryad · 06/06/2025 17:28

He’s admitted he was wrong. I’m going to ask him to apologize to the baby directly when we get her from daycare to tonight. So he can feel the gravity of what he did.

That would be ridiculous. I hope you’re joking.

Merrygoround8 · 06/06/2025 18:15

This guy is a twat

Garibald · 06/06/2025 18:14

He's being fucking stupid and dangerous. This isn't cooking where it doesn't matter whether you use a pinch more basil. Bottles have to be measured to ensure your baby gets the right nutrition and correct ratio of water to milk. He's going to harm your baby.

pyjamalife · 06/06/2025 18:14

Only read OPs posts so sorry if repeating, out on a dog walk.

Why not get the little tommee tipped pots and pre measure the formula. I found it so much easier that way, then he just has to focus on the water line.

Glad he's agreed to take you baby's health seriously now.

LouiseMadetheBestBroccoliPasta · 06/06/2025 18:09

OP, your H is an arrogant idiot and a terrible father. He also has misogynist views and doesn't respect you, otherwise he'd have listened to YOU, instead of forcing you to come to MN. I suggest you read this article by Zawn Villines, it is highly pertinent. Here are some snippets:

"We just have different parenting styles!" How men escape accountability for bad parenting

It’s the tool everyone weaponizes against mothers who have researched extensively to be the best possible parents they can—a weapon that instantaneously lets men off the hook, and casts blame at the feet of every mother who thinks parenting should involve more than merely reacting.

“We just have different parenting styles!”

Therapists weaponize it, too, telling mothers that they need to be on the same page with their co-parent, and suggesting that it’s somehow the mother’s responsibility to ensure this happens. At school and in extracurricular activities, educators weaponize parenting disagreements to paint mothers as hovering, anxious and incompetent, even as their foolish coparents bungle everything (in the rare event they even bother to show up).

If you’ve heard this bullshit one too many times, you’re not alone. Hundreds of readers have asked me to address this. Most of them tell me about the hundreds, and sometimes thousands, of hours they’ve spent researcher parenting, only to hear from their co-parent that this research doesn’t matter, because he has a different “opinion” (read: uninformed emotionally reactive view of parenting).

In my recent parenting survey, a striking trend emerged: Women spent exponentially more time researching parenting, partnering with experts, questioning their own behavior, pushing back on generational trauma, and more than their male partners. Women put in more effort, and spent more time with their kids—all the necessary ingredients for becoming true parenting experts.
Their male partners parent by emotion only, doing whatever feels right to them in the moment. And then, when women push back against them, they insist that the problem is “different standards.”

The hidden cultural assumptions about parenting

Patriarchy loves to pretend that parenting is easy. Because if parenting requires no special skill, then mothers are not worthy of veneration, and we can continue to treat them like they’re stupid. If parenting is easy, there’s no reason to invest in social structures that make parenting easier, nor any value in mothers’ unique contributions to the world. ...

Mothering—even mediocre mothering—is an incredibly demanding task requiring immense skill, patience, time, and resources.

But it’s in men’s interests to pretend it’s not. Because as long as men are able to convince themselves that motherhood is not skilled labor, and that mothers make no significant sacrifices to learn how to parent better, they don’t have to acknowledge the ways in which they exploit their partners. And they certainly don’t have to consider that they should step up and do some fucking work, too.

Therapists, pediatricians, and other experts fall into this trap, too. Even though they know that parenting is hard work, patriarchy works hard, too. And it’s convinced a lot of experts that what really matters is that parents are on the same page. They intuitively understand that parents should be putting in equal work. But rather than demanding equity from men, they instead pretend that things are equal, and treat both partners’ opinions as equally valid. ...

It’s not socially acceptable to announce, “Actually, I think you should do all of the hard parenting labor, and I shouldn’t have to do anything I don’t want to. I also think moms are kind of dumb, experts know nothing, and that every fleeting emotional impulse I have is unassailable, and I therefore believe I should parent however I goddamn well please, consequences be damned, without ever facing any pushback.”

But that’s what most sexist men actually believe.

So instead, they reduce the above nonsense to something much more palatable: Our standards are different! Where he has no standards, and she has done all the work to establish reasonable standards that he’ll undermine for the rest of their kids’ lives.

https://zawn.substack.com/p/we-just-have-different-parenting?utm_source=substack&utm_medium=email

OP, your H should be deeply GRATEFUL that you are such a good and attentive parent and that you fought for your daughter's wellbeing against his arrant sexist stupidity.

Results of the parenting survey

Typical parenting practices, gender differences in parenting style, how parenthood affects parents, and so much more

https://zawn.substack.com/p/results-of-the-parenting-survey

readingismycardio · 06/06/2025 18:08

I’ve never heard such a stupid thing in my life. It’s dangerous, too.

FOJN · 06/06/2025 18:05

Needspaceforlego · 06/06/2025 17:55

Op glad he's seen sense. But why are men to stupid?

It's primarily arrogance and I wonder if there is a bit of misogyny in there too; raising babies is women's work, how hard can it be/mum is making a meal out of something simple, type of thing.

I wish people would stop conflating academic qualifications with intelligence, he's clearly educated but otherwise he's as thick as shit.

Cherrytree86 · 06/06/2025 18:04

What a stupid lazy bastard. Sorry you’re having to deal with this Op @CharmingDryad 💐

diddl · 06/06/2025 18:03

I'm surprised he didn't realise that it could be dangerous.

springtimemagic · 06/06/2025 18:02

CharmingDryad · 06/06/2025 15:57

DH refuses to measure the water and formula scoops when making bottles for our baby. The bottles have measurement lines on there. You just pour to your desired line, and sometimes pour a little out if it’s too much. But he says that’s too difficult to do. He also refuses to use the built-in level in the formula can to make the scoops exact so you know how much you’re giving her. He says, “that’s not how cooking works.” And “I just eyeball it.” He tries to eyeball the measurement, but it’s really not difficult to go ahead and use the level. Yet he refuses.

AIBU to demand he measure properly? Or am I being too fastidious?

I’m all for freestyling on cooking - I always do that. But not baby formula. Poor thing will either end up under fed, or over fed and will have terrible constipation.

lifeonmars100 · 06/06/2025 18:00

This is dangerous

Robogob · 06/06/2025 18:00

What a horrible, thick, dangerous practice. I’d never leave him alone with a baby.

FormerlyPathologicallyHappy · 06/06/2025 17:56

Mymanyellow · 06/06/2025 16:04

It’s so he doesn’t have to do it.

You Beat me to it 🤣

Ponoka7 · 06/06/2025 17:56

CharmingDryad · 06/06/2025 17:28

He’s admitted he was wrong. I’m going to ask him to apologize to the baby directly when we get her from daycare to tonight. So he can feel the gravity of what he did.

Will he cut up grapes etc? His attitude is chilling. Please get him to read real life stories, if his arrogance is more important than your child's life. Likewise children drowning, dying via accidents in the home etc.
www.google.com/amp/s/www.liverpoolecho.co.uk/news/liverpool-news/our-daughter-choked-death-grape-27427552.amp

Needspaceforlego · 06/06/2025 17:55

Op glad he's seen sense. But why are men to stupid?

Needspaceforlego · 06/06/2025 17:55

Op glad he's seen sense. But why are men to stupid?

wishIwasonholiday10 · 06/06/2025 17:54

Obviously he should do it properly but if he can’t be trusted he could use readymade formula only. You could also measure the scoops out in advance (also saves you making mistakes in the middle of the night) but that wouldn’t solve the problem with the wrong volume). Exact volumes are a bit less important after 6 months when babies are meant to be drinking some water anyway although you still do don’t want to be too far out.

Profpudding · 06/06/2025 17:51

In very extreme cases he could actually kill her. It’s something to do with the water electrolytes and the brain. I’m more scientific than I can explain it

MyDeftDuck · 06/06/2025 17:50

CharmingDryad · 06/06/2025 17:05

His main draw is his brains! He is a successful professional intellectual. But he can be so stupid and stubborn about common sense things.

Yeah……..all brains and no common sense 🙄

NewMrsF · 06/06/2025 17:50

Is your husband a useless piece of shit in other ways too? What a prick

IveGotAnUnusuallyLargePelvisISwear · 06/06/2025 17:49

Two things I find most attractive in a man: weaponised incompetence and a complete lack of care for his own child’s health and wellbeing.

Just kidding. Your husband is a cunt and I wouldn’t trust him with my baby at all.

gamerchick · 06/06/2025 17:46

It's pretty much neglect. You say he's intelligent but your comments over the safety of his own kid say otherwise OP.

Hopefully there's no harm done but I'd be watching his arrogence spill over into other safety stuff from now on. He can't be trusted.

TheBroonOneAndTheWhiteOne · 06/06/2025 17:45

Emmz1510 · 06/06/2025 17:35

What an idiot. Overfill the scoops and baby could end up constipated, underfill them and they aren’t getting enough nutrients. Is this a form of weaponised incompetence? Hoping if he does a crap enough job you’ll take over this task? Useless twat.

There is salt in formula and it needs to be in the exactly right proportion for the human baby.
Their kidneys can't cope with too much salt.

Bonbon249 · 06/06/2025 17:45

I think we have a bad case of weaponised incompetence! Hubby is being a lazy arse and potentially affecting his baby's health and development. He .needs a good kick in the pants.

CrOuChEnDTiGr · 06/06/2025 17:44

What an idiot…of course it’s important. Not enough and they are not receiving vital nutrients and too much there’s a whole raft of issues…it’s neglectful of him! I would imagine if there’s too much powder it’s going to uncomfortable to digest, poor thing! He really shouldn’t be such an idiot it’s v simple! Couid you have the ready mixed bottles available for him on such occasions?!