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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

He IS BU, isn't he? Should I LTB?

55 replies

OhNotThisAgain · 29/08/2015 19:46

Will try not to drip feed, but obviously there's history. DH and I have been having some problems for a number of years. Haven't found a way to deal with them, so the same things tend to come up over and over again. We live some distance from all of our family members - this is relevant. He's 39, we've been together for almost 15 years and have young children.

2 weeks ago we visited his family - all of us. It's a long way, they are an utter nightmare so trying to pin them down to meet up took a lot of effort and we ended up chasing them across 3 or 4 counties to see them. It was pretty exhausting, but I put up with it a couple of times a year in order to actually see them (if we left it to them we'd never see any of them). We were home for a couple of days before I then left with the DC to visit my relatives (DH never comes, preferring to stay at home and work). So I've done around 2000 miles of driving the past 2 weeks, plus 5 nights on my own with the DCs, who are reasonably allergic to sleep. I made sure I came home on our wedding anniversary, having arranged for a thoughtful gift and funny card to be delivered in my absence.

Before I went I stocked the fridge - and showed him - with ready meals and things he could take for lunch. 3 days into my trip he rings to tell me he's run out of food. Turns out he didn't realise the soups were 2 portion cartons (he can read). I told him not to be so bloody greedy and to go and buy more food for himself.

Got home late on our anniversary absolutely shattered. There were some flowers in the living room and a card. We'd agreed we'd get a babysitter over the weekend and go out for a meal as a belated celebration. I was shattered and went to bed. He stayed up gaming - I have no idea what time he came to bed.

He got up with the DCs next morning and let me have a lie in which I appreciated. Mid morning I discovered that he'd pretty much done fuck all in the house while we'd been away. Dirty dishes all over the kitchen (we have a dishwasher), laundry basket full of his clothes, towels taken out of the dryer, folded and left on the landing floor?? He didn't put the rubbish out on rubbish day, didn't take the dry clothes off the airer, didn't mow the lawn. (His timesheet shows that he worked only his standard 35 hours and he works from home with no commute.) I wasn't happy at all, but didn't really want a row as was still feeling tired.

At lunchtime he said he'd taken the day off and arranged to go for a drink with some friends in the afternoon. He was out all afternoon until around midnight. He came home steaming drunk and within 10 minutes was trying to pick a fight. Called me all the names under the sun for being messy (we both are), for not caring about our anniversary, not wanting to go out with him, not leaving enough food for him. I asked what he was doing instead of doing his washing etc while I was away and took our wedding photos off the wall. He stormed out. That was about 2am. I went to bed.

Today he's lazed around in bed till 3pm, then on the sofa watching films with the kids. At 6 I reminded him that the lawn needed cutting, so he got up and has done that.

I've had enough. I'm not his mother. He's unsupportive and lazy. I can guarantee he's spent the week playing stupid computer games and thinking that I'll sort everything out when I'm back. I'm not making his dinner tonight (wonder when he'll realise) and I'll be taking his clothes out of the washing basket.

So, WIBU?

OP posts:
HackerFucker22 · 29/08/2015 19:53

I have no time for fucking selfish man-children.

He was unwilling to look after himself whilst you weren't there, he is hardly going to start now you are home.

You -sadly - are enabling him.

It's probably beyond "going on strike". Would he be open to counselling?

And throw the fucking games console out my DP games but only after I am in bed and only occasionally. If it interfered with day to day life the console would go

OhNotThisAgain · 29/08/2015 19:55

He has started scheduling gaming meets (online) pretty much every night over the last 6-8 weeks, and stopped checking that I didn't mind. I feel like i can't go into my own living room at the moment. I had to do the ironing in the hallway facing the wall last week!

OP posts:
RandomMess · 29/08/2015 19:56

Yep he's being unreasonable Sad

RandomMess · 29/08/2015 19:57
Shock

Sounds like you'd get more help/break if you were indeed single!

Cloppysow · 29/08/2015 20:03

If you're not going to kick him out, i'd get the xbox/whatever right to fuck out of the living room for a start.

StarlingMurmuration · 29/08/2015 20:08

He sounds like a complete man child. Do you work, OP, or are you a SAHM? Just wondering whether he's used to you doing everything around the home? Not that that is an excuse for being unable to look after himself for a week.

LindyHemming · 29/08/2015 20:09

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

airforsharon · 29/08/2015 20:13

He rang you, some God knows how many miles away, to tell you he'd run out of food?! And he expected you to do what exactly?

Is he 12? He sounds childish, thoughtless and a bit of a pillock tbh. Stern words needed OP.

JuJuMun69 · 29/08/2015 20:13

I have no idea why on earth you have let this go on?

I'd kick him and his gaming thing right out of the door.

It's bliss bringing up children on your own. Your rules and no lazy bastard in the house.

OhNotThisAgain · 29/08/2015 20:16

I do a few hours bookkeeping (from home) every week and am studying for a degree part time too. My studying doesn't get in the way of family life.

I'd be absolutely screwed financially if I left (it's very complicated), so I suppose I've been determined not to until now. Sad

OP posts:
MyCatIsABiggerBastardThanYours · 29/08/2015 20:17

Sounds like a bloody twat to me!

What exactly are you and the DC getting out of this relationship?

RandomMess · 29/08/2015 20:19

When the dc were young and I went away without them I stocked up, if it was just dh home alone well erm f*ck that he's MORE than capable of sorting himself out!

This is the man who left home to move in with me and at that time had rarely cooked anything etc. he still coped without moaning/phoning etc.

HackerFucker22 · 29/08/2015 20:19

you had to iron in the hallway? Really? I mean REALLY? Does seeing it written down not make you think "why the hell am I doing this?"

SurlyCue · 29/08/2015 20:24

Fucking hell! He rang you to tell you he had run out of food? Why? What did he expect you to do from so far away?

I agree you were/are enabling him (stocking the fridge and showing him what to eat?? Confused) so no surprise he did fuck all while you were away.

In your shoes i'd be out the door. He's a lazy manchild bastard.

SurlyCue · 29/08/2015 20:26

I had to do the ironing in the hallway facing the wall last week!

No you didnt. You chose to. You could have done it in the living room.

SurlyCue · 29/08/2015 20:27

If you arent going to leave him at least stop babying him. Dont do his laundry or prep meals for him. Stop going to chase his family round the country. If he wants to see them he can take the kids on his own.

CharlotteCollins · 29/08/2015 20:29

Had a SHL told you it's very complicated? If not, check.

Keep up the strike just to give you a bit of a breather. But don't expect that to be a long term solution.

OhNotThisAgain · 29/08/2015 20:34

Sorry, what's a SHL?

(I have over £100k in accounts in my name which isn't my money - it's a sort of early inheritance but I can't spend it unless my parents actually die. Couldn't get any benefits etc with it sitting in my account, there's nothing to prove it's not mine (and I'm benefitting from it as it's offsetting our mortgage) and I can't spend it. DH has a ltd company and takes less than £8k per year as salary, so child maintenance would be next to nothing. Sad)

OP posts:
CharlotteCollins · 29/08/2015 20:35

Shit hot lawyer.

SurlyCue · 29/08/2015 20:41

Why cant you spend it til they die? Is that written in the terms of the inheritance? And if that is the case then how is it being allowed to offset your mortgage? Could you ask your parents to alter the terms? Explain you need to leave your husband. Surely they would rather help you out now when you need it than some obscure point in the future?

CharlotteCollins · 29/08/2015 20:42

And it sounds like you could do with advice from one.

SurlyCue · 29/08/2015 20:42

rather than

OhNotThisAgain · 29/08/2015 20:44

Parents wanted to help us without actually giving the money away. Having it offset the mortgage reduces our interest payments but keeps it available for them should they need it (and it's absolutely their money in my mind - if they need it, and they may well do, it gets transferred back to them immediately). It's reduced our mortgage term from 30 years to about 12. It was very generous, but it's not mine to spend.

OP posts:
RandomMess · 29/08/2015 20:49

I guess you need to give it back to your parents asap. You must have details of it suddenly turning up in your account.

Are you really going to stay in a miserable marriage where you are treated like a skivvy because you get a cheaper mortgage?

LordPeterWimsey · 29/08/2015 20:51

Your parents are trying to run an inheritance tax scam, having their cake and eating it. If they don't want the money to be part of their estate when they die, they have to give it away without strings now. If they don't, it shouldn't be in your account. Do they know you want to LTB and the money massively complicates the issue?