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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

To want my husband to be a better housewifel

78 replies

MarianneSolong · 19/08/2014 19:52

He's retired and I have increased my working hours. So today he was basically at home with our teenage daughter, while I was out all day.

He's not a bad cook and likes shopping but he's not very good at remembering to top up basic supplies, and also sometimes cooks in a way that's ambitious but not very well balanced.

So tonight he served a 3 course dinner

  1. Odd starter of fried mango slices with teeny salad garnish. (It tasted okay, but I think I prefer just having mango as a fresh fruit.)
  2. Omelettes. He'd made those before we had the starter and not put them in a low oven/or on hot plates. So the omelettes were warmish rather than hot. He'd also announced that they would be served with 'garden vegetables' These turned out to be two bits of runner beans, as there were fewer beans and peas to pick in our back garden than he had anticipated. (We did have lots of other veg in the house and salad materials, so he could have supplemented the two bits of bean - but changing to Plan B is not a strong point.)
  3. A good ready made cheesecake.

I only really got annoyed when he announced afterwards that we were completely out of eggs. I'd reminded him before going out to shop for all the ingredients he'd need for supper - but hadn't said to top up supplies, though I often remind him that shopping is about checking that we have enough basics. I'd just have thought it was obvious that if you were going shopping and cooking with eggs that night, you'd check that there would be some left for the next day.

I am torn between knowing that he's having a go and feeling a bit frustrated at there being stuff he just never quite gets the hang of. (This was also a day on which he'd managed to break/damage something quite major.)

OP posts:
BookABooSue · 20/08/2014 18:17

I'm a bit Hmm at the posters saying you don't have to be grateful. I say thank you to anyone who cooks for me. Surely that's just basic manners?

PasswordProtected · 20/08/2014 18:23

Well he is trying.
Invest in a dishwasher & give him a cookery school course for his next birthday or Christmas.
I might also prepare checklists or a household essentials board, to be consulted before going shopping.

MrsKoala · 20/08/2014 18:32

I don't consider saying thank you being particularly over grateful, which is what i think posters (well me at least) are referring to. Obviously basic gratitude and saying thank you goes without saying. I just think in response to the you should be gushingly grateful for anything you get given is a bit much. Someone could open me a tin of soup and heat it in the microwave, i'd still say thank you. But it would be a different level of gratitude to if they made me a nice dinner from scratch.

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