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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

to think that I am not an unpaid skivvy

43 replies

wheresthelight · 18/10/2014 10:02

I might be a sahm but that does jot mean that I am the unpaid skivvy to dp and his bloody kids.

I make sure all the housework, cooking, laundry and shopping are done. I spend hours tidying up after them all but the lazy feckers can't even out the bloody silver foil off the new carton of juice in the bin which is right behind them. instead dp leaves ot on the worktop for the flaming fairies to clean up.

he literally does nothing in the house ever.

wibu to go on strike until they learn to clear up after themselves??

OP posts:
maras2 · 18/10/2014 13:43

I just couldn't respect a man who was so lazy.In 46 years we have never argued about house tasks or child care because it was sorted before we got married as blokes on his side of the family tended to embrace the 'traditional' bloke role ie. bone idle lazy bastards.What was worse was that their partners let them get away with it but moaned like hell behind their backs.Confused

Hatespiders · 18/10/2014 16:53

My observation over the years is that quite a lot of men just don't mind a bit living in a pigsty. They actually don't see the mess/dirt. My friend says men on their own 'live like bears, but with furniture'. So when they get a partner/wife, they can't for the life of them understand what all the fuss is about with her, when there's dust everywhere, rubbish not taken out or dishes not dealt with. To them, it just doesn't matter. In fact, they can accuse their woman of 'nagging' (that annoying word) Men would even turn their underpants inside out and wear them for another week or so to avoid any laundry.
It needs training, as many here have said. Each task has to be mentioned, described and allotted, and checking up on. Very tiring but eventually they can be trained. The worst you can do is to sigh and do it yourself. They love that.
My husband has always been super about housework. He actually loves doing it, and is a cleaner by profession. He's tidier than me and puts things away all the time. I'm very lucky.

wheresthelight · 18/10/2014 17:50

I have no objection to doing the bulk of it what I object to is the fucking lazy attitude of dumping rubbish all over the kitchen when the bloody bin is right there.

if I ask nag he will help a bit but I get so cross with the idle attitude.

however he knows he has pissed me off with it as I told him I won't take ot anymore and that I am sick of him being a lazy sod.

OP posts:
whattheseithakasmean · 18/10/2014 17:56

Stage a bloodless coup. Get a fantastic job & start doing nothing at home - it is easier to ignore when you are out of the house hobnobbing with people who respect you & don't treat you as a domestic appliance. If he works 3 days on/3 days off, tell him to sort the childcare - not your problem.

WerkSupp · 18/10/2014 18:06

I'd leave a person like this. Yes, I really would.

jellybelly701 · 18/10/2014 18:08

wheresthelight I just asked DP whether he is living a double life and has a whole other family hidden away somewhere after reading your post. I could have written it word for word.

DS is 11mo and DP has never settled him to sleep. From day one he has always been handed to me with the words "heres mummy" every time he cried. DP now gets annoyed that he will never settle for him and will just scream his head of until I take him. What the hell did he expect? the imbecile

emms1981 · 18/10/2014 18:09

I asked my dh the other day why he doesn't offer to help and his reply was because you have a go at me for not doing it right, ffs.
The other morning I blew up at him because I was making my childrens breakfast and packed lunch as I always do before doing mine and he came down and started leaning over me and making his and just getting in my way, I told him to go away until I had finished. He's been off sick for weeks and I'm sick of having him under my feet

AreThesePeas · 18/10/2014 18:10

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

jellybelly701 · 18/10/2014 18:15

I was referring to your 'hitching like a 13yo' post of course. Not your OP.

Quitelikely · 18/10/2014 18:18

Tell your do you will do anything for him but not everything!

Alternatively ask him to pay for a cleaner..........

Momagain1 · 18/10/2014 18:58

As a stay at home mom, i accept doing most of the chores. But
I have insisted from the beginning (when I was training my 2 dcs already) that there is a difference between cleaning the house, and cleaning up after people. Everyone is expected to not leave a trail of clothes, shoes, papers, wrappers, hairbrushes etc. It is kind of the difference between the need to tidy your belongings before the maid arrives, and the cleaning you pay her to do (i think, never having had a maid.) Sometimes, someone teenaged would point out that I left a job waiting, and I would have to clarify that me not cleaning the kitchen in a timely way because I would clean it later was VERY different than someone else not cleaning it because I would clean it later!

When training spouses, maybe pick one thing to concentrate on for a time period. For 6 months, concentrate only on the tidy behind yourself don't CREATE work for me view. Or concentrate only on a few chores that you want to establish a rota with. Though even then, to some extent, you have to accept a job done differently than you would do it. With dh, and to a lesser extent, dcs, i tried very hard to appreciate a job pretty much done and being left with just the details.

emms dh complaining that she has a go about him doing it wrong for instance. A quick chat here would reveal that a good many of us don't don't use the exact same tools, methods or standard for a given job. Especially with your spouse, you are dealing with an adult, so long as the task is done in any sort of respectable fashion, let it go. Eventually, i had to accept that my husband 'does the dishes', which includes any necessary putting away of leftovers and clearing of counters/cooktop, though he leaves puddles and streaks on the worktop and seems unaware of the floor. I, on the other hand, clean the kitchen. I wash the worktops and cooker, i sweep the floors, i wipe down the cabinet fronts and handles. Mostly. I mean, to this day i dont clean the kitchen as deeply each night as my mother! (I think my big revaluation about spouse's after dinner efforts came when my mother kept detailing the kitchen after me during a visit!)

Once you have them doing a job, you can work on adding value. Or not. Dh vacuums, moving and piling clutter and furniture. I used to get mad he never dealt with the clutter, or put the furniture back. I used to have a go about that. But after a while, i looked at it as a shared task. I hate vacuuming because I feel the need to do all the rest. He doesnt mind because he doesn't register the rest needs doing. So, he vacuums, and all I do is 'the rest'.

Designated landing spots (someone mentioned his side of the bed, and a spot in the kitchen) are good. At a point when we still had the older children at home, i got a shelf and deep baskets that fit it, and that's where everyones stuff went when it was in my way/after he vacuums. Even after older dcs moved out, when mail still came or they left things after a visit. A couple times a year I might have to insist the basket was cleared out a bit so I had room. After they moved out, they would automatically check it when they came round. I still have the basket and shelves. I have no doubt when dcs eventually come to visit this house they have never lived in, they will reflexively have a look in their basket for whatever. Drawback: we have moved regularly. There have been times when his piles were simply packed in a box and shipped. There have been times when he sorted while unpacking. There have been times when the pile stayed boxed past the next move! I have my pile spots too, though mine are more actively sorted, dealt with, paid, filed. Mostly. There have been times I have discovered a box of random stuff of mine that didnt get dealt with before a move!

ThePinkOcelot · 18/10/2014 19:00

Well, Op I don't know if going back to work would actually solve this. It certainly hasn't for me and quite frankly, I am fucking pissed off tbh!

AmazingMaise · 18/10/2014 20:13

As apologist as it sounds, I genuinely think they don't see the mess in the same way we do. I'm on mat leave and my first task of the morning after dropping ds to school is to tidy the house. Just general tidying, no intense cleaning or anything. I spent an hour alone on Fri tidying the kitchen, I passed comment on this to dh that evening and he was gobsmacked as there was ' nothing wrong with the kitchen' when he left that morning. Erm, the dishwasher needed emptying and reloading, the pans from dinner needed washing, the dry clothes needed to be folded, another wash needed to go in, the surfaces needed wiping, the pile of odds and ins which collects on the table throughout the week needed sorting and so on. He was looking at me like I had fallen out of the sky. And that was only 1 room. I didn't even bother mentioning the 3 bedrooms, the bathroom or the living room. He is generally good and helps out, but it can be very frustrating!

Flux7001 · 18/10/2014 20:25

Going back to work wont resolve it, you will just not be looking at all the crap during the day.

Best to sitdown and discuss jobs and responsibilities. My DH does the floors, recycling and loads the dishwasher. DS does the dishwasher unloading daily, occasionally tidy his bedroom, occasionally bed change and occasionally hand washes the pots and occasionally cook. I see it as my responsibility to ensure kids are trained up and able to face adulthood as otherwise I'd be doing them a disservice. We do struggle to get them to change loo rolls, put stuff in the laundry etc

Ilovenicesoap · 18/10/2014 20:32

In all the SAH/WOH couples where the woman stayed at home, the men saw it as a red light to behave like a lazy, entitled, shit.
This is in a nice MC well educated area.
The women were there to provide for their needs and often the DC came second.
Blech.

Ilovenicesoap · 18/10/2014 20:33

Sorry couples I know.

TattyDevine · 18/10/2014 20:45

I hear you. I can't complain really as my DH is great and probably makes less mess in the house than me.

However there were 2 things that annoyed me when we had our first child.

First one was, when he was cuddling DS and he puked, he'd always bark at me "DO YOU HAVE A CLOTH?" (as in a muslin). No, I don't. I may be the mother of a baby, but that doesn't mean I constantly have a muslin attached to me just in case. With a sicky baby, if I pick him up I may well pick up a muslin just in case, but a magic muslin fairy is not there ready to had one to me if I forget, and no your clothing is no more precious than mine.

Second thing - I tended to give DS a bath each evening during the week, and DH would on the weekend (yes he needed it, as said up there he was a puker). So the weekend would come round and DH would say "can you sit with me in the bathroom when I bath him? Its so much easier and nicer when there's someone there to keep you company".

YES, THAT WOULD BE GREAT WOULDN'T IT. SO THE 2 NIGHTS OF THE WEEK I DON'T HAVE TO DO IT I HAVE TO SIT AND WATCH SO ITS NICER FOR YOU. FUCK OFF.

Nothing too bad in the overall scheme of things but it bugged!

wheresthelight · 18/10/2014 21:22

Oh tatty my do does that too!

I don't know if i just never noticed it when I was at work or what, mind we had a 1 bed flat so it could be blitzed in about an hour. I think the biggest issue is we have moved to a large 3 bed semi and because dp and his kids have all grown up having someone pick up after them they are used to it so don't think.

training has begun but as with a lot of men it is a slow process Grin

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