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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

or is DH? <involves small children, SN and toilets>

57 replies

silverfrog · 11/12/2010 20:31

Sorry, this could turn out to be quite long - want to try to give the whole picture, so as not to have AIBU by stealth Smile

dh won some tickets on Thursday, to a concert being held last night. 4 tickets, so whole family could go (was a family concert)

I was not thrilled at the prospect, as:

dd1 has ASD. last minute changes of plan not always ideal. concert was at the Albert Hall, so big, loud, grand, etc. tickets were in a shared box, and I didn't want dd1 disrupting it for other people who had actually paid ot see the concert.

dd1 is 6, dd2 is 3, btw. concert started at 7pm - the time they normally go to bed. neither has ever been kept up late for anythign like it before. both have been to shows, but more of the DIsney on Ice variety, or panto, where it doesn't matter so much if you wriggle/talk etc.

but I agreed to give it a go - nothing ventured nothing gained.

all went reasonably well, but both girls were a little overawed by the occasion, and were very clingy. as usual, I got to sort them out (make sure they didn't fall over the balcony/drop stuff over. keep them sitting nicely. make sure dd1 didn't get her hands on the nibbles (food intolerances)etc. dh got to chat and socialise with everyone else, again as usual.

once we were there, it was apparent that dd2 (newly toilet trained) had a bit of a runny tummy. not serious, but when she needed to go, she needed ot go, and stools were a bit loose (sorry TMI)

My job, as usual was to keep dd1 calm (happy with htis role - it works best for us as a family), so dd2 went to the toilet with dh. 3 times in the first half (80 minutes)

then came the interval.

dd1 was a bit confused,a s there were more nibbles/food she couldn't have, and she tends to think the interval is the end, so gets confused as to why we aren't going home. dd2 needs the loo again, so I tld her to ask dh.

she came back, and said "daddy says he is talking" (as he was). I check with dd1 to see whether we could all go. not viable, so send d2 back to dh to ask again. she comes back again and says "no, mummy, daddy says he is still talking". 10 seconds later she poos in her pants - which obviously means I then have to drag dd1 along ot the loos too, clean up dd2 (quite distressed - she has never had an accident since toilet training). upset dd2 means upset dd1, who is also upset because she think we are supposed to be going home, etc etc.

so, i get back, hiss a "thanks a lot" to dh, who grumpily tells me that he was talking to the CEO of the charity (concert was in aid f charity) and so he couldn't just leave in the middle because dd2 needed something.

I htink he could have easily made his excuses - surely anyone understands a small child needing the toilet (CEO is female, if this helps for information purposes, and has children herself)

mitigating circumstances on dh's side:

his company were sponsoring the concert, and we were in the company box. (although dh was NOT there in any official company-representative way, but only because he had won the tickets in a raffle). dh is reasonably senior in his firm, and I can see that it might have been mildly embarrassing as a situation, but then he was the one who insisted we tried to go as a family.

I was not shirking the taking-to-toilet duties (as he now claims - when we spoke today about it, he said "but I'd already taken her 3 times!"), but was making sure dd1 was calm and happy.

he says that there is no way I could have expected him to stop talking to the charity boss, I say he was an arse who should pull his finger out.

so, AIBU?

OP posts:
ragged · 12/12/2010 13:24

Hum, seems to me like you are overthinking it. You tried an evening outing as a family, it didn't work very well (although not a complete failure, just not as good as you might have hoped). Lots of conflicting demands (some unforeseeable) that proved harder to balance than you had hoped. If you knew that the DD2 had that dodgy a tummy you probably wouldn't have gone at all. The whole thing was a trial and now you've learnt something about your functional limits in trying to do such outings.
Just chalk it up to experience.

princessparty · 12/12/2010 15:50

I think you were barking mad to take them in the first place

fel1x · 12/12/2010 16:21

YANBU
show him this thread. It will help him see things a bit more objectively and perhaps apologise

Lulumaam · 12/12/2010 16:30

if there is a bigger picture of DH not responding DDs needs and if he is happy to play a doting father in public but not actually do any caring for his children, whilst you do everything like an unpaid nanny, then you are definitely NBU. if this was a one off where he felt he could not break off talking to teh CEO , then maybe you were being a bit U

on balance, i feel he should have stopped talking anyway and taken dd esp. knowing she is new out of nappies and had a runny tummy

perhaps it would have been better in hindsight to take them girls home in the interval as it was not an ideal night to be out with so many trips to the loo needed?

nights like taht are not fun for anyone really...

annielennox · 12/12/2010 16:40

Me and DH both work. If the social event is at my work DH minds the DCs at the event so I can do the networking etc that is expected, if it's his work event i mind DCs while he schmoozes. We both know that's the deal. Neither of us would expect the other to break off a conversation to deal with DCs: we would both make sure DCs weren't interrupting etc, or either one of us mmight depart at the interval to take DCs home etc. (DH is classical musician so we got to a lot of this kind of stuff). Sorry but think you are being a bit U.

annielennox · 12/12/2010 16:43

Also don't ever expect any event like this to be fun with DCs til they are teenagers at least

Ragged is right - you tried it, it went OK but not brilliant, which is about as good as it gets, IME!

Not worth having a row over it.

ChaoticChristmasAngelCrackers · 12/12/2010 16:55

YANBU

Your DH is BU especially as he is the one who insisted you all went as a family.

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