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DD upset with me Who is being unreasonable

79 replies

ML5 · 19/11/2025 23:12

DD22 on FaceTime with her BF messages me for toast. DH then presents me with lots of cups/plates from upstairs AFTER I finish kitchen which naturally I was not happy about so started shouting out of frustration. DD then starts shouting about me shouting to DH about making her the toast to and not to bother making her one so we end up arguing ourselves. Am I being unreasonable to think that seeing as I work full time that everyone is responsible for making their own after dinner snacks and not leaving cups/plates upstairs and presenting them to me late at night?

OP posts:
Falsegod · 20/11/2025 10:38

I’m in my late 20s and living with my mother (suits us both). I never ask her to do things for me. Cook all my own food, do my washing etc couldn’t imagine texting her to make me toast! The most I might do is ask her to throw something in the air fryer when I’m on my way home from work so it’s ready when I get in but wouldn’t ever ask her to make me food if I was in the house

SleeplessInWherever · 20/11/2025 10:34

All of this “he should have brought them down to be done with the next load of washing up” is absolute nonsense.

He should have brought them down, washed them, and put them away. Who walks in to a clean kitchen and dumps yesterday’s pots in it for “later.”

If I’ve just hoovered and my partner gets crumbs on the floor, clean them up.

Weaponised incompetence. Make your own toast and wash the pots you’ve found yourself. Or better yet, move them when you’re done with them so they don’t need finding.

ldnmusic87 · 20/11/2025 10:21

At 22 she is calling you for toast!?

LucyMonth · 20/11/2025 10:04

ML5 · 20/11/2025 00:04

After working the last thing I want is to have orders from DD about after dinner snacks and to be presented with dishes that need washing up late at night so being tired and frustrated I shouted

This is so needlessly aggressive. Your DD asked if you could bring her up some toast because she was on the phone…you can just say no. She didn’t “order” you to do anything. She made a request you can refuse.

Your husband brought plates down…don’t wash them. Just say, oh I’ve just finished up so you’ll need to do those ones. He didn’t “present you” with them. Really no need for anyone to do any shouting. You sound like you are martyring yourself needlessly.

hididdlyho · 20/11/2025 09:28

If she's too lazy to bring dirty dishes down, then tell her she's not allowed to eat in her room. Does she work and pay board? She sounds like a moody spoilt teenager rather than a woman in her 20s. As much as it's good to help out your kids by letting them live at home as adults, you don't want them taking the piss in this way. I would have a conversation about treating you and the house with respect otherwise she will have to move out.

Butchyrestingface · 20/11/2025 09:28

You all sound quite childish. But if I had been messaging my mother at ANY age (far less 22) to make/bring me toast, I'd have been told to pick a windae. Tell them both to wash their own damn dishes.

Isn't it about time for your daughter to move out if she treats you like the hired help? She might start to appreciate you more once she's living in some dingy flatshare and paying through the nose for none of the niceties of home.

TreeDudette · 20/11/2025 09:21

Channel my mother.... "What did your last slave die of?" and repeat. Throw in "You know where the kitchen is" and "Do I look like I have Welcome stamped on my forehead, I am not your doormat!"

She can bring her own dishes down and make her own toast.

itsthetea · 20/11/2025 09:19

What is unreasonable really is letting things build until you snap

and then you feel guilty at snapping and you are so used to being a mug that it’s easy to fall back into the old routine

until you snap again

it makes sense to have a dinner and clear up rota rather than everyone doing thier own thing though

put some rules in place and take advice on here about how to go forward

practise the sillly laugh if you like “tinkly laugh of course I won’t make your toast !”

GAJLY · 20/11/2025 09:12

Arlanymor · 19/11/2025 23:16

Your DD can get off her arse and get her own toast. Your DH can wash anything that he took upstairs when he brings it back down. Who are these adult babies?

I agree with this 👆

JustNotBlueberries · 20/11/2025 09:10

I was a pretty lazy and pampered child, teenager and young adult and even if wouldnt have expected my mum to make toast for me or other snacks from about the age of 10.

WelshRabBite · 20/11/2025 09:01

Why is the household expectation that YOU wash the dishes, regardless of who ate off of them?

Surely, the only reasonable situation here would be for your DD to come downstairs, shove some bread in the toaster and wash her own dishes while it browns?

I can’t think of why anyone would expect anything else; she’s 22, not 2!

YourFirmLimeHam · 20/11/2025 09:00

ML5 · 19/11/2025 23:21

And also told my DH as well not to present me with plates from upstairs late at night

Hiw did you enforce that boundary?

notatinydancer · 20/11/2025 09:00

kierenthecommunity · 19/11/2025 23:29

But did you not have the conversation along the lines of ‘I’m just about to start clearing up, could you go and gather up the crockery now please’?

it’s all very passive aggressive

She shouldn’t have to tell him , he’s a grown man. I take it you made him wash the extra stuff @ML5?

SALaw · 20/11/2025 08:56

ML5 · 19/11/2025 23:30

She was on FaceTime to her BF but messaged me

Yes I know that. It was clear from your post.

MrsBennetsPoorNervesAreBack · 20/11/2025 08:51

Well, they're taking the piss and I'm not surprised that you're annoyed, but you don't need to engage and shouting isn't the answer.

For dd - you could have simply messaged back to said something along the lines of "I don't provide a waitress service but feel free to help yourself - you know where the toaster is".

For dh - you just say "oh, I'm already done in the kitchen, so you'll need to wash those yourself"

There is no need for confrontation, you just need to be calmly assertive. The problem is that you have somehow internalised the idea that you need to act like everyone's servant and so you're finding it hard to say no. But you don't have to run around after grown adults, just remind them nicely that you're not the maid and they can do stuff for themselves.

redskydelight · 20/11/2025 08:50

ML5 · 20/11/2025 00:04

After working the last thing I want is to have orders from DD about after dinner snacks and to be presented with dishes that need washing up late at night so being tired and frustrated I shouted

It's entirely reasonable for you to tell DD to make her own toast and to tell DH to wash his own plates/leave them in a tidy pile by the sink.

The shouting is not ok and has meant that is now the focus of the discussion rather than the unreasonable behaviour that led to it.

In our household this would have gone
DD: (messages) Can you make me some toast Mum? I'm on FaceTime with BF.
Me: If you want toast you can make it yourself. You can even make it while on FT. I'm sure BF can cope.

DH: Here's some dirty plates
Me: That's nice; the sink is that way

Or actually it wouldn't have gone like that in our household, because DD and DH already know what my answer would be, so wouldn't have bothered to ask.

When you are all calm, perhaps explain why you were annoyed and apologise for shouting, and suggest that DH and DD need to revise their future behaviour?

CautiousLurker2 · 20/11/2025 08:48

Unless there is an essential fact such as DD or DH are disabled, I would tell them to effectively off with their unreasonable demands.

You are not the maid, you will not be serving toast on demand ever again and if DD doesn’t like it she can move out and hire someone else to do it. And DH needs to step up and share household chores 50/50 or you’ll be taking a long walk with your suitcase in hand.

OhDear111 · 20/11/2025 08:43

@ML5 So you finish up in the kitchen? Why on your own? Why are you still accepting they do nothing. They do their own washing up surely? Or get a dishwasher!

DrinkFeckArseBrick · 20/11/2025 08:42

Why was your husband 'presenting' them to you rather than just sorting them out? Why not just say 'I've just finished clearing up., you'll have to wash and put away yourself'. Why not just ignore your daughters cheeky message?

theemmadilemma · 20/11/2025 08:40

ML5 · 19/11/2025 23:21

And also told my DH as well not to present me with plates from upstairs late at night

People are being slight dicks here OP. If I've tided the kitchen for the night, the last thing I want is a sudden appearance of a shit load of dirty stuff from upstairs making the fucking kitchen look shitty again. Just bring them down in fucking time right?

But you sound like you need to lose your shit more. WTF with your daughter? No, and laugh at her every single time. Making her fucking toast? Is she 3? Fuck off with that. And they both need a bollocking and reminding until they learn about the plates upstairs.

Teathecolourofcreosote · 20/11/2025 08:38

This is Mumsnet where no one ever shouts but I'd have done the same.

However, you do need to be addressing why they feel they can treat you like this.

Bringing down plates, fine. Presenting them to you - not fine. I don't understand why he didn't just deal with them.

That your daughter would even send this message also says a lot.

You need a proper conversation about why this is unacceptable with both of them.

99bottlesofkombucha · 20/11/2025 08:37

or, I can see you’re FaceTiming <bf> I get you don’t want to hang up and you can’t possibly come downstairs while on FaceTime, so I’ll come up and chat to him while you make your toast so he’s not lonely! Just give me 5 as I’m exhausted after work but then I’ll be up to chat to him x’

99bottlesofkombucha · 20/11/2025 08:35

Op, it sounds like you need some ways to say no without losing it. If your dd messages you something pathetic like that, you reply one of a list of replies- try ‘oh my god are you ok do you need an ambulance??? Did your legs fall off TELL ME!!’
or ‘oh hey! How are you? We should catch up!! Let me know when you’ve made a snack and cleaned the kitchen and we can talk!!’

PrizedPickledPopcorn · 20/11/2025 08:35

Do you stop other people accessing the kitchen? I can’t understand why two adults are coming to you about kitchen stuff. If DH has sensibly brought down the pots from upstairs, he can put them in the kitchen ready for the next set of washing up.
If DD wants toast, she can make toast.

I think this is going wrong because you are engaging with it. What they do about toast and dishes doesn’t need to involve you. Just get on with what you would normally do and ignore them.

Sometimes people get upset and frustrated about other people’s behaviour when they can just choose to ignore it.

Dozer · 20/11/2025 08:31

YABU to have shouted.

DD was U to ask you to make her a snack and especially to text! Awful.

DH was U if he expected you to wash the dishes he’d brought in or just dumped them.

Is there a pattern of you doing way more domestic work than them?