to think dh is bu expecting me to be able to cut the lawns when i'm looking after a 3 year old allday?

[carriedababi]

hes got home tonight, and told me i really should be able to cut the lawns, i guess it would take about 45 mins, as i'm at home allday.
[sahm]

he was going to the gym tonight, which he seems to have time for.

so should i be doing the grass cutting while looking after a 3 year old?

I can see it from both sides really; while I'm sure it probably is possible to find time in the day to do it if you try, I do understand that men seem to think we can just leave kids/housework/cooking etc to do tasks, as that is what they do.

My DH will decide to paint a room, or do something in the garden on a Sunday and will ask me to do it with him, yet doesn't understand that I also have to get things for the children and sort them out at the same time. He can just choose to go off and do what he likes, but I still have to be responsible for the kids while we do things.

Pushme - same in this house. Just as well women can multi-task . Or so I've been told.

Glad it's not just my house, MollysChambers. I think men just pretend they can't possibly multitask as they're all lazy.....

Yabu. Put toddler on patio/decking with loads of toys and get mowing woman! My dh works away so if it needs to be done, I have to do it.

If safe, I try and get dcs to do job with me. It keeps the out if trouble and I can watch them. Yesterday's task involved changing car headlight bulbs! Amazing the fun to be had with electrical sticky tape whilst I had the tool box out!

I agree with Coldizt. It depends very much on the three year old. I used to be able to go out and bleach and scrub the yard while dd1 was 3. She would happily sit in front of cbeebies or do some colouring.

I went to take the rubbish out while 3yo dd2 was playing mummies in living room yesterday. I must have been gone about a minute. In that time she emptied a full container of talc and a bottle of water all over the living room. Talc and water turns into a kind of clay, btw that takes ages to get off furniture . God knows what would happen if I left her to clean the yard. The talc wasn't in the room. I wasn't aware we had any talc. Apparently DH keeps it in a the dining room cupboard

in the minority but I think you're being a bit U. I don't get the danger. . Are you cutting the lawn with a scythe?

"Totally agree, Manjob. Putting out bins also Manjob. And buying stuff from B&Q, painting walls of house and getting rid of spiders."

I do all of these things and DP does cooking and ironing.

Will our kids be scarred by our gender bending?!!

Quite doable. Sometimes you can only do one little stretch at a time inbetween sorting out other problems, but mostly you just get on with it.

Related Q: How old do you think a child has to be to use a power-cord mower to mow one's lawn? I am thinking at least 12yo, possibly more like 16! I know several people who let their 7-9yos mow the lawn with petrol version.

come off it. why not? I've got 4 dc and always mow our lawn. Always have done. It's a job I don't mind and dh hates, so I'm happy to do it. Sometimes the kids are in the garden, sometimes in the house. Not once in 11 years of combined parenthood/lawnmowing has there been a problem.

Why can't he go to the gym tonight? I wish my dh had the time or energy to go to the gym. It would do him good. If it means you doing double work then it's a bit off. if you've got your free time too then what's the problem? If it's a job you really hate then negotiate. But if it's just another household job to be done, then I don't see the problem in just getting on with it.

1. Those manual mowers are called Hoddadadadas.

1. All this "manjob" business is making my anus contract. Ffs.

1. If my husband "thought I should be" doing anything he could fuck right off.

1. I don't think it's dangerous to mow with children. I always send out two out to 'help' Daddy when dh does ours .

Petrol mower is very much dh's toy but when we were at our last house it was small enough to use an electric one, front and back. Presumably you hoover with dd in tow so not sure why this is different, and needed less often. Or do it when she is at preschool ?

YunoYurbubson here here, right there with you on nos. 2 and 3. Especially no.3, as I see that as being the biggest issue in this scenario!

Ragged

Sometimes ds1 or ds2 do my lawn think they started around 12 or so but there swnsiable teens

op

Does dh give you any free time for yourself to go out .Think if you had hard day he came swabbing home said that then disappeared I might be s tad annoyed

There is a reason why Im happy to be single most the time

bins mine or ds1 job ,spiders who ever finds them moves them

No way would I mow with DS (4) around. He would be getting in the way and trying to push the mower. I did do it once or twice last summer with dd who was about twelve months because she wandered off and busied herself with other stuff but I don't know if it will be the same next summer.

good god - of course you can do it. Bloody hell.
how do you think single parents manage?

Im said single parent, i work, and i cut my own grass, and i weed and i do diy and all sorts.. and have done since DD was 20 weeks old.

get a grip.

actually it winds me up when women say ' oh, i cant do that'

course you can!

YABU.

It seems a bit silly to not be able to do it

a three year old can just watch

my lawn takes me two hours ish and mine just watch and toodle abut

admittedly with my lawn being so big they can always be far away from the mower

but if it wasn't they would still watch

my mates doing mine for me at the mo
good old barter system

Thought I was in some sort of twilight zone till I read Yuno's post. Yabu. Shudder at "manjobs". Thankgod we dont subscribe to that in this house. I shall be painting the house this weekend whilst dh cooks dinner and does laundry. Shudder again at the thought that we should instead do our womanly and manly jobs.

You know your child and whether they will not run out in front of mower, etc, but I think as they are 3 and there's just one of them, then there shouldn't be a problem - I mean, what do you do when you have hoover or do laundry, you must leave him/her in front of TV or with colouring for a while? Or you could ask them to help you by getting all the things off the lawn and then sit down with a reward whilst you actually mow.

Mowing is DH's job in this house, but having just renovated a house for a year, I have had to do so much stuff to do with a toddler. Infact, DH has just rushed off to work, leaving me to drive the car to the garage with the alarm and hazard lights going, then walk 1.5 miles back with a heavy 3.9 yr old in the pram, am 8 months pg . You'll be fine.

Hahaha, my mum subscribes to the manjob point of view. Winds me up no end.

I am very jealous of people who have enough lawn that it takes an hour plus to mow - it only takes me 15 minutes or so to do my tiny garden.

I think you lot are being a bit mean to OP. She's not a single parent. She has a DP. Why is it unreasonable to expect him to do the odd thing round the house? Why is it unreasonable for said thing to be mowing the lawn??? Or do SAHM's have to do EVERYTHING? I would have thought almost everything was enough personally.

I had to check I had logged into MN, am open mouthed at all the 'manjob' comments.

Honestly gobsmacked.

In answer to OP I manage with 3 year old and newborn.

I mowed the lawn yesterday with 3 and 4 yr old, it was a good excuse to not clean the totally revolting bathrooms.

Out of the so called 'manjobs' and 'womanjobs' I know which I'd rather be doing!

As for the do SAHM's have to do everything? comments, well of course not, but that wasn't the question, the question was 'should i be doing the grass cutting while looking after a 3 year old', and the answer to that is yes IMO.

am too gibbon manjobs? ew get off yer arse and cut the grass - put the kid in a play pen if they're so wayward