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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

to have stopped doing his laundry?

43 replies

LeggyBlondeNE · 17/07/2012 13:14

Yes, another laundry thread, but he actually suggested I ask to find out who is the unreasonable one...! I'll try and get background in because it's probably relevant to my recent response to our conflict, but skip to the end if you don't want to read it all!

Long term background: when we first moved in together (or actually, started spending more than just weekends together at my/our first house) we agreed that I would cook and he would clean. However, although previously we both did our own and the other's laundry at our respective houses, once he moved into my/our house fulltime, he stopped doing any at all which annoyed me slightly but wasn't a huge deal.

Several months later: baby arrived, all went to chaos, we got a cleaner. I eventually started cooking again, he rarely cleaned. He still never did laundry and I found doing it all, plus baby-vomit-bibs/clothes and nappies quite a strain with a clingy baby.

Now: cleaner's back went and she quit, we don't yet have a new one. I get home from work first and cook every day, often with a tired whingy toddler on my hip/clinging to my legs before he gets home from work. He'll do the kitchen when I point out that it's too disgusting/short on pans for me to cook tomorrow or sometimes just when he gets around to it. The surfaces have honestly not been properly clean in about a month. We both contribute to tidying the rest of the house.

The problem: I resentfully still do most of the laundry (hers and mine is fine, his I don't like doing) but have been pointing out for ages that he doesn't tend to put his clothes away and I have no intention of doing so when I have enough of mine and child's to do.

On three occassions I have said that if he doesn't get his clothes out of the clean-clothes basket so I can use it again/separate clean from dirty on the floor so I don't have to wash things twice, I will stop doing his laundry. Final warnings have been required.

On the fourth time he'd left clean clothes I'd washed and sorted for him in the basket, I just stopped. He didn't notice for a while because his mother came to visit while I was away and did all his laundry for him. When he did eventually notice he told me I was unreasonable not to give a final warning as I had before. I said that my policy was clear and he should respect me enough to notice my efforts and at least put the clothes away. When I most recently asked for hte basket as I needed it to empty the washing machine, he wanted to know if the load included any of his, as why should he make it available otherwise.

So ... who is being unreasonable? I'm feeling like a domestic servant (serve him food daily, been expected to do his laundry despite total lack of acknowledgement of it from him) and pretty sick of it.

OP posts:
LeggyBlondeNE · 17/07/2012 13:15

Oh gosh that's long! There's definitely a balance to be struck between avoiding drip-feeding and not ranting for 500 words!

OP posts:
NotANaturalGeordie · 17/07/2012 13:18

So you both work FT and split the chores 50/50 right? That's the fair way. When I worked FT we exactly split 50/50 - DH cleaned upstairs, I cleaned downstairs, I put the washing on and dry it, he irons and puts away, we go food shopping together, whoever gets in first cooks, the other washes up.

Simples, yes?

LeggyBlondeNE · 17/07/2012 13:20

I don't think we have a 50:50 split but it's hard to quantify with different jobs and a dishwasher.

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LeggyBlondeNE · 17/07/2012 13:22

Sorry that's different chores. We both work in similar jobs FT, yes, just that his job is 15 miles away and mine's 2 miles away.

We keep talking about doing a chart but I don't think that would help as he seems to think taking the wheely bin out to the front = doing a load of laundry when there's a considerable time difference!

OP posts:
Birdsgottafly · 17/07/2012 13:24

When my children were little, i had to give 'final warnings', now they are teens, we all pitch intogether.

Do you think that he see you as an equal partner, or his mother?

nymeria · 17/07/2012 13:24

Just don't do it then. Don't think it should be a case of you reminding him, giving him 'final warnings' etc - you're not his mother - just don't ever spend another second of your life even thinking about his laundry. I've never taken any interest in DH's and he has never expected me to - we both work full-time and I'm not his laundry service!

Birdsgottafly · 17/07/2012 13:26

"We keep talking about doing a chart"

What sticker shapes is he going to choose for his side, boats or trains?

Unless he does have SN of any sort, then i appologise.

NotANaturalGeordie · 17/07/2012 13:27

Well then, refuse to do his laundry and buy another basket so he can't block you from using it.

Nagoo · 17/07/2012 13:27

Are you going to get a new cleaner?

It's a bit pathetic to not wash his stuff if it means picking his socks out of the basket so as to avoid doing them.

Sit down with him and make a new rota thingy. Make putting washing away part of the laundry job.

Agree that you will go to bed with the house clean.

Melindaaa · 17/07/2012 13:28

Why don't you just do it? Surely if you are putting away your own and your daughters, one more lot isn't much? I have a family of seven and its a five minute job.

Surely there are jobs that you hate doing that your DH always does? In this house my DH always does the dog poo if he is home.

Nagoo · 17/07/2012 13:29

I don't think there is anything childish about a chart web it makes responsibilities clear. If you are dividing chores then it's important to be clear about how they are divided

LeggyBlondeNE · 17/07/2012 13:29

What sticker shapes is he going to choose for his side, boats or trains?

Heee!

I have to admit the chart was my idea so he could see what I actually do when he's not paying attention. And so I could see if I was not-noticing anything he did. But of course, like anything else, if it's going to happen I need to organise it and I can't be bothered long enough to sit down with felt tips and sugar paper...

OP posts:
cuntflapwankbadger · 17/07/2012 13:29

Oooo the kitchen thing pisses me off no end. I always cook as I am better and home first - we both work FT he's just further away. The deal is that he does the washing up as I cook, and he NEVER bloody does it that evening. For example I am quite sure I will get home to a dirty side full of washing up, and be expected to cook a meal, when half the crap I need is still dirty. Then I need to wait until he's home and done some of the stuff I need before I can cook anything (I am not washing up too! Angry) thus negating the whole thing anyway and meaning I waste my evening instead of being able to get in, chuck a meal together then get on with my life! Does my head in.

Totally on your side here.

MavisGrind28 · 17/07/2012 13:31

YANBU. Why are you doing the majority of the washing anyway? Do you work outside the home less?
FWIW, I work part-time, DH works full time (12 hour days) and we have 2 kids. He does his own washing and ironing, I do mine. It's the way we've always done it since we moved in together. We both do the kids' stuff, towels etc though I do more as I'm around more to notice a full laundry bin and have more time to get it out on the line. We have separate laundry bins for us and the kids so I can ignore his if I want to and vice versa.
Putting away gets done at the weekends and we all do our own. If the kids haven't put their clothes away and we need the basket then their clean clothes get dumped in the middle of their room to sort and we use the basket for the next load.

It seems to work quite well. Eventually I'll be training the kids to put their own laundry through. Not sure when they can be trusted to iron safely...

Can't you do/agree something similar? If you can't have separate bins then you only wash what's in the communal bin, not what's on the floor. Clean clothes are left on his side of the bed, or his bit of the bedroom floor to iron and put away. Then it's up to him. There is no clean clothes fairy and a grown man should be able to get clean clothes into his own wardrobe!

LeggyBlondeNE · 17/07/2012 13:31

Surely if you are putting away your own and your daughters, one more lot isn't much?

You'd think so, but he just produces masses of it, by volume. Typically if I've run a big load of loads on a weekend, me and T's clothes and T'd nappies will be one basket and his will be another over-full basket. Partly it's the relative sizes of our pants believe it or not! Plus he doesn't have a particularly clear system so I don't really know what to do with them.

OP posts:
NotANaturalGeordie · 17/07/2012 13:33

CFWB I woulnd't cook in a dirty kitchen - one look and I'd be txting him to bring a takeaway home Smile

LeggyBlondeNE · 17/07/2012 13:35

Of course it occurs to me that he doesn't have a clear system of what goes where since we moved to this house, which was after he started leaving the laundry to me. So in fact, he's never had to decide on one...

Oh yes, for the last three months, clean clothes have gone into the toddler's old cot when I demanded the basket. I'd go along with that if we weren't going to need the nursery again in ... well a known period of time.

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ScrambledSmegs · 17/07/2012 13:39

YANBU. You gave him more than one 'final warning'. To me a final warning is that - final. I would only have given one, you're much nicer than me evidently.

He doesn't sound like he has much respect for what you do, which isn't surprising as judging by what happened when his mother came to stay, he thinks it's his right to be waited upon. Grown men are perfectly capable of doing their own laundry.

MsElisaDay · 17/07/2012 13:41

YANBU - I have never done my DH's laundry.
We have separate washing baskets and I do mine, he does his. In practise, I end up doing more washing than him as I do the bedding and towels (if I waited for him to do them they'd be filthy, and I couldn't live with that) but the only time I see to his dirty washing is if I need to put a load in and there's room for a few of his things.

We're equals in the house - he cooks and does the gardening plus any bits of DIY, whereas I clean, tidy and do all the supermarket shopping. I don't see why I should do his washing as well.

We have different "rules" when it comes to washing, anyway. I think knickers and socks should be worn once, T shirts perhaps twice, before a wash.
While he happily wears T-shirts for a week and will pick dirty socks up off the floor to wear them again. To prevent this driving me round the bend and create unnecessary rows, I'd rather just leave him to see to his own stuff. It's far less hassle that way.

As your DH apparently can't even put his clean clothes away, then he definitely doesn't deserve to have them washed, dried and taken up to the bedroom for him. That would drive me absolutely insane. Buy him a new cheap washing basket and let him take care of his own stuff!

LindyHemming · 17/07/2012 13:48

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

hattifattner · 17/07/2012 13:58

every time you do it for him, you are saying his "final warning" was actually not final at all. Its you nagging. So follow through on your threats. One warning. Follow through.

(ANd is he 12, needing final warnings? Really?)

Just stop doing his laundry and trying to be his mum. dont cook for him unless the kitchen is clean.

silverten · 17/07/2012 16:13

"We keep talking about doing a chart"

What sticker shapes is he going to choose for his side, boats or trains?

That says it all for me I think.

He sounds like he's being petty and rather childish, picking details to moan about - esp. the bit about not wanting to empty the basket cos it might not have his stuff in!! That sounds like exactly the sort of thing I said to my mum when I was about eleven, FGS.

However the whole thing makes me think that you're both in the twilight zone of having a small child, where you're busy and knackered and you can't think straight because there is just too much stuff in your heads to cope with rational thought.

Hopefully you'll get through it and come out the other side smiling, but in the meantime more clearly defined jobs would probably help. So if you want him to do something it's probably better if you say so loud and clear. Yes, I know a grown man shouldn't need managing like this but right now surely it's better just to have most things done without too many crises?

LeggyBlondeNE · 17/07/2012 16:40

Well I fell much better after this, not even the 'NBU's, just for making me laugh!

FWIW I already did buy a second basket (so I could have one to take the wet things to the dryer and one to take the dry things off the dryer during busy laundry days), but will clearly have to buy a third!

Silverten - you're right and we've talked about this in general, it does seem all much harder with a small person around, but that situation isn't going to change for a few years yet so we'd probably better get our act together a bit!

Right off to get toddler and cook (a very easy meal which will take me seconds ... gotta love tortellini!) Thanks all for the laughs.

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SmaugTheDragon · 17/07/2012 16:46

..I'm so glad our family is 'traditional' I stay home with our children and do housework, and Dh goes to work. All this sounds very complicated!

Nanny0gg · 17/07/2012 19:45

I really don't get all this angst about washing!

Just sort it into piles and put in washing machine and wash it! I understand not doing others' ironing, but separate washing just costs more.

If you don't want to put his clean things away (I would cos I like things tidy), just leave them where he can trip over them.

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