How ill would you have to be before DH ran from a very important meeting?

[Inoneminute]

Maybe the whole key to this is that the parents involved are prone to over reacting.

MW seems to have had a stomach bug, called DC at work at which point he dropped everything and ran from Downing Street.

In the context of peope who reacted like that to mum feeling unwell, perhaps everything else is reasonable?

DH would come as soon as he could but I can't imagine him running on TV

His story has so many holes in it I’m struggling to understand how anyone can believe it?

So he thought his wife had Covid because she was sick, so he immediately came home then went back to work?! Thus spreading the Covid.

He apparently thought himself and his wife had Covid (although later said he didn’t) so decided to “protect” his child he would place him in an enclosed space for 4/5+ hours with two suspected Covid patients? Instead of just asking a relative/friend/colleague etc to look after him in London in the unlikely event they were both completely incapacitated?

Despite being a senior government official he never actually got tested for Covid, neither did his wife?? Only his son, who tested negative, while they were in Durham? So is there any proof at all that he ever suspected they had Covid?

He drove 250+ miles without stopping, with a 4 year old? Yet couldn’t manage a 30 minute drive to a nearby castle?

He wanted to test if he was safe to drive, so decided to put his wife and small child in the car with him at the same time? The same small child who needed “safeguarding” and “protecting”.

He stopped to let his son out for a toilet break, but the whole family went out and then had a stroll and played in the woods? In the middle of the strictest lockdown period we had? Why not just let him out then get straight back into the car? He knew they shouldn’t all be wandering around the woods 30 miles from “home” at that point in time.

I’ve read his wife can drive, so if his eyesight was “weird” why didn’t she drive them home?

If his eyesight was “weird” due to suspected Covid how was he cleared to go back to work when he still had symptoms?

DH wfh two days when I had a bad fall. I fell on some concrete steps and split my head open. I called him and he thought I was being a drama queen. He was working from home anyway and said ‘start walking home and I’ll walk down and meet you’ blood was everywhere and my head was split open. Luckily a woman at the station drove me home as she had seen me fall. Once DH saw the state I was in he got better and took me to A&E. I was to watched for 48 hours for concussion so he wfh a sevond day which wasn’t really allowed but his boss agreed.

I think we forget that these are very entitled people, who are not used to looking after small children without help. She’s also an older parent (I was one too), who sometimes tend to see worst case scenarios in every little thing re.their child.

I once got rang as husband on his day of and watching our oldest who was 6 at time (youngest at nursery school was closed that day) had d and v and just couldn't get out of bed she was fending for her self I came home got her dropped her at inlaws and went bk to work 50 mile round trip

There is not one chance in Hell that my dh would drop everything and run home, just because I'd thrown up. Even if I'd thrown up a lot.

I have epilepsy, which is controlled by medication, so we taught our DC how to contact DH if anything happens to me (we could have taught them to call 999 but they wouldn't have been able to reach to open the door to let paramedics in and an ambulance would almost certainly have been unnecessary). He would have left work immediately in that situation and he only works about 10 mins away. The last time I had a seizure DC1 was only a few weeks old and, fortunately, he was at home right next to me at the time and took the day off work. He has also taken the day off to look after the baby after I passed out when I had norovirus, not to look after me but because it is not safe for DC if there is a chance I would become unconscious, but, again, he was already at home. If he was at work and I became ill (not unconscious but unwell), I might message him to complain about feeling unwell but not expect him to rush home from anything important, especially now DC are not babies anymore.

Well if it wasnt Covid and only a sickness bug, why in earth did they need to go Durham? Because I thought the reason was that they were worried to not be able to look after their 4yo if they were ill with Covid....
I also thought the ‘drive test’ was because he couldn’t see very well due to fever (which is one of the Covid symptoms).

The story doesn’t add up....

And no @Inoneminute, I wouldn’t have called Dh to come home for a sickness bug. I would have dealt with both dcs until he was at home. I would have expected him to step up and deal with the dcs the minute he had set a foot into the house though. Maybe that was the issue ?

I called dh once to collect dc from nursery when I had what turned out to be pneumonia. Otherwise, struggling through is the order of the day.

I threw up when babysitting a few years ago and thought it was a reaction to the food I'd just had, so didn't call the parents. Just cleaned up the mess and kept away from the kids just in case.

An hour later, having thrown up again I did text, but they didn't check their phones so didn't realise until they were leaving.

When they got home I asked for bleach to sanitise the bathroom, then cycled home. Spent the rest of the night throwing up as, unbeknown to me, norovirus was doing the rounds. The kids did catch it, but a week later so not from me.

DH has only come home from work for me twice in the last 18 years. The first time was when I went into labour and the second was when our car caught fire on the duel carriage way with me, heavily pregnant, and 1 year old DC inside. We were left stranded on the side of the road. He and a colleague came to get us.

@JacobReeMogadishu
Great post.
I think I'd change your parting line from
"He thinks we're all stupid."
To
"And He thinks we're Stupid."

DH was at sea when I was hospitalised with an ectopic pregnancy. To their credit, the RN arranged a helicopter off the ship and flew him home via crab air.

My DH literally ran home from work once, and it was totally unnecessary - I'd managed, while simply walking past, to get my ring stuck through a hook on the back door, couldn't get it off the hook, couldn't get the ring off and was thus physically stuck there. I managed to reach my phone, rang him laughing so much at the predicament that I could barely speak, and my phone promptly died. He rang the house phone, which obviously I couldn't answer because I was stuck to the back door, panicked, and burst in through the front door 17 minutes later having run all the way home (we didn't have a car at the time), expecting me to be dead at the foot of the stairs or something. As I turned to look at him, the sodding ring came off the hook by itself.

The only other times I've rung him to come home were when our then two-year-old fell down the stairs a few minutes after I'd had some very bad news about my dad, and when my dad died. I've managed alone with everything else, including miscarrying in the middle of actual proper flu while caring for a five-year-old.

My husband was away for a weekend seeing friends I asked him to come home a few hours earlier because I developed a stomach bug and our DS had only just turned one. If DS had been a bit older I would have just dealt with it. You would surely have to be at deaths door to not be able to look after one four year old child - just put their favourite tv show on repeat while you’re feeling sorry for yourself on the sofa. That’s what most parents manage to do... but these are clearly not normal parents or normal people. I think they’ve thoroughly proven that through their bonkers actions and way of thinking.