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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Always Mum, never Dad!

42 replies

Changesarecoming · 25/08/2025 21:04

We have not long been home from our summer holiday, it was lovely, BUT my God, it's always Mum, where are we going today, what are we doing for dinner, what now, Mum I'm bored. To be clear, we have never been to this place before yet coming out of the airport to collect a car, my children and DH all look at me, where now? I DONT KNOW! I HAVENT BLOODY BEEN HERE BEFORE! I now feel like I need a holiday from coordinating a family holiday and constantly asked what's happening.
Sorry, just needed a little rant.

OP posts:
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Barney16 · 26/08/2025 09:05

Mine are grown up so it has become slightly more technical. Mum, how do I get my socks white, mum what is this dial on the boiler (with photo) Mum is it a good idea to open an ISA. It's baffling. When I was their age I asked my parents nothing. A) I thought they were idiots B) I knew everything 🙂

CucumberBagel · 26/08/2025 08:27

My DH has taken to asking me a question while simultaneously getting his phone out to look up the answer. Why are you asking me then?

PollyBell · 26/08/2025 08:05

Shouldn't you be taking this up with your partner?

CatAsstrophe · 26/08/2025 08:01

@myplace

Or if feeling particularly sharp- My brain’s busy, use your own.

Love this! Thank you.

Didimum · 26/08/2025 07:59

Well, it’s a sign your DH doesn’t do enough if the kids don’t also look to him for those things.

Cyclistmumgrandma · 26/08/2025 07:57

As an ex primary teacher who was asked questions like this all day, every day, I would often answer “I don’t know, how do you think you could find out?”

Oldglasses · 26/08/2025 07:26

1VY · 25/08/2025 23:21

My DD is mid 20s, has 3 university degrees and a very responsible job.

Just this week alone she has phoned me to ask how to change her Wi-Fi provider , how to fix the hinge on her kitchen cabinet and how to arrange to have her gas boiler serviced.

I’ve had to do ALL THREE of these things for her. I work FT and live several hours drive away .

It never ends. I’ll be 99 in a care home with dementia and my kids will still be sending me what’s app photos asking if this chicken is cooked and do I have their V5.

I’m sure there’s a meme going round with a skeleton saying something like:
‘When I’m dead, but my kids are still asking me what’s for dinner.’

I’ve been at work and had calls from DS (teen/young adult) asking me where something is - and I’ve bloody found it as well from 3 miles away!!

As for the holiday thing - I am the one that will research it so I know what’s going on, but I’m crap at directions (that’s dh’s domain and he’s also the driver).

Fizbosshoes · 26/08/2025 07:23

YADNBU!
This has been my life first about 19 years!
The most stressful holiday was going away with DH, DC and PIL. It was like everyone's brain went on holiday and I was ask Alexa!
I read the welcome/info booklet at the holiday cottage and somehow this made me the fount of all knowledge about literally everything, even the size of pizza in a cafe I had -like everyone else- never been to fml

MidnightPatrol · 26/08/2025 07:18

Oh yes - even if my DH is standing with the child at the time of asking, they’ll still say, ‘no I want mummy to do it’ re: getting a drink, fixing the toy they’ve broken etc.

I assume it’s because I do most of the actual caring… they look to me for it rather than him (!)

MyCatPrefersPeaches · 26/08/2025 07:10

LlamaNoDrama · 25/08/2025 23:40

Oh god yes, it's driving me insane and I'm starting to retaliate. It's not the kids as such because that's to be expected but the man child arghhhhhhh. We go in the supermarket and he'll just stand there expecting me to lead the way, every bloody time so now I just stop and stand there too, looking blankly right back at him. Today he asked which counter to put my cuppa on. It takes one step to get from one counter to the other in my kitchen why does it matter which one you put it on? It's the constant trying to use my brain because he cba to use his own. It's wearing VERY thin.

This is my life. Everyone in my family expects to use my brain. DH doesn’t put things away because he “didn’t know where you’d want it”. Ok, where do you think it might go? Do you think as it’s a top, it might hang in the wardrobe with the rest of my tops? Just a thought….

Bliss1985 · 26/08/2025 07:08

Same. I posted a similar groan about mothers load in holiday but got told everyone’s husbands do at least as much if not more- that’s not the reality of what I see.

IbizaToTheNorfolkBroads · 26/08/2025 07:04

I agree OP.
DH project manger’s multi million pound projects.
My teen DC smash exams.
I’m the only one with any sense!

LlamaNoDrama · 25/08/2025 23:41

The latest when I now refuse to answer the endless unnecessary Q's is 'I was just thinking out loud'

LlamaNoDrama · 25/08/2025 23:40

Oh god yes, it's driving me insane and I'm starting to retaliate. It's not the kids as such because that's to be expected but the man child arghhhhhhh. We go in the supermarket and he'll just stand there expecting me to lead the way, every bloody time so now I just stop and stand there too, looking blankly right back at him. Today he asked which counter to put my cuppa on. It takes one step to get from one counter to the other in my kitchen why does it matter which one you put it on? It's the constant trying to use my brain because he cba to use his own. It's wearing VERY thin.

spiderlight · 25/08/2025 23:31

This is my actual life. My DH is a university history lecturer, but during COVID, DS would walk past him to come and ask me questions for his history work. He's 18 now and will still come straight to me for everything, even if he can see that I'm working/hoovering/elbow-deep in dirty dishes and DH is watching 'Pointless'. DH is just as bad, except with him it's 'Darling, have we...?' Yes, 'we' have sent you mum a birthday present/packed your charger/booked the dentist, but 'we' have started to call him out on it a lot more now and he's starting to get it.

VivienneDelacroix · 25/08/2025 23:23

londongirl12 · 25/08/2025 21:50

Yep, I always feel like the bloody tour guide!!!

I used to be a tour guide, leading tours across Europe. We went to a town today on holiday that we hadn't been to before. On the bus into town and dh asked me a question about the bus stop we needed, I asked if he had thought to look it up and he replied "no, you used to be a tour guide".
Not in every bloody town in Europe! And it doesn't mean that 20 years later I'm now the family tour guide!
He also told me yesterday that he hasn't learned any of the language because I apparently "have a language brain". I asked him how it is that almost everyone in Europe seems to have this "language brain" and can speak English as a second language and possibly a third language too, yet somehow the majority of English people don't have a language brain? This lack of language brain seems to be unique to people whose first language is English-funny that.

It's so exhausting being the translator, the speaker, the reader, the planner, the guide, the buyer...I agree OP.

1VY · 25/08/2025 23:21

My DD is mid 20s, has 3 university degrees and a very responsible job.

Just this week alone she has phoned me to ask how to change her Wi-Fi provider , how to fix the hinge on her kitchen cabinet and how to arrange to have her gas boiler serviced.

I’ve had to do ALL THREE of these things for her. I work FT and live several hours drive away .

It never ends. I’ll be 99 in a care home with dementia and my kids will still be sending me what’s app photos asking if this chicken is cooked and do I have their V5.

PuppiesProzacProsecco · 25/08/2025 23:12

DH is a qualified mechanic and total petrol head. Runs a classic car group. Literally loves anything with an engine. I have zero interest in anything to do with motor vehicles and didn't even get my license till I was 35.

DDs car (purchased and maintained by DH) is making a funny noise/breaks down/won't unlock - who does she ring? Me. FFS.

ManchesterLu · 25/08/2025 22:52

Your children looking to you is compliment. You are mum, the one they go to above all others.

Your DH expecting you to solve everything is a huge problem however, as he should grow up and be more proactive.

HeronPond · 25/08/2025 22:47

Campingisnexttogodliness · 25/08/2025 21:53

Regular reminders to your dc they have 2 dps...
*obviously only if they have..
Ds does get sent back to the first parent he came to...

I just say ‘Go and and bother you father, darling’.

Cheeringmeup · 25/08/2025 22:43

outingouting · 25/08/2025 22:05

I remember my ex once calling me FROM HOME when I was at work to ask if we had mince in the freezer

Oh god, this is so familiar and drives me up the wall. All the questions "Do we have..." "Is there any... " all just to save him actually looking in the fridge/cupboard. My usual response now is "I can't tell from here".

Moveoverdarlin · 25/08/2025 22:40

My DH handles all holiday logistics, I’m as clueless as the kids.

ItsFineReally · 25/08/2025 22:40

Muffsies · 25/08/2025 22:19

Um, did you have the passports?? I need to know 😅

Surely the answer to that is "I've got mine..."

Muffsies · 25/08/2025 22:39

lanthanum · 25/08/2025 22:34

I bet the answer was yes, though!

I'd love to have seen her husband's face if she pretended she'd given them to him 🤣

halfpasteleven · 25/08/2025 22:38

outingouting · 25/08/2025 22:05

I remember my ex once calling me FROM HOME when I was at work to ask if we had mince in the freezer

DH standing at the fridge, holding the milk bottle to his nose
“Is this milk gone off?”

I was sitting at the table feeding our DD at the time….

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