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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Aibu for asking dp to help once in a while?

198 replies

Monkeyonmyback · 27/03/2016 02:02

Basically I have 2 boys, one a preschooler who goes to cm 2 days a week and a young baby who is starting to wean onto solids.

I'm on mat leave but due to return to work later this year. Dp is self employed but contracted so doesn't get to pick his days to work. He works a very physically demanding job and is generally out of the house by 7am often working miles away and doesn't come home til about 7pm. He is exhausted. He only works about 4 days a week tho.

I do the majority of the housework and everything child-related, take charge of the household bills and basically any other 'life-admin' that gets thrown in our general direction.

I never have 'me time', oldest son in the throes of potty training so all is fun in our house Hmm

I am constantly run ragged from the minute I get up with the kids to the moment I get to bed at night. Always mountains of laundry to do and bottles to sterilise and general drudgery that comes with running a house.

Dp got home early last night, just before I'd started making tea. He came home to a howling hungry baby who I had just made a bottle for, a preschooler whose pants I had just changed (for the umpteenth time that day) and me who couldn't even get tea started because of the afore-mentioned things. I asked dp if he would give baby his bottle. He did, so I could make tea. Afterwards it was near enough bedtime for kids, I asked dp if he wouldn't mind getting kids ready for bed whilst I tidied kitchen and put laundry away. He did this begrudgingly as he was tired from work. I understand this.

Now the thing that gets my goat is even on his days off I do majority of housework, sorting kids etc, packing bags when we have to go out the house, sorting everything from birthday presents, buying groceries, taking kids to docs/dental appointments, that sort of thing. Dp will quite happily sit in the same room with the kids but he will be on his iPad or phone doing 'research' - just generally ignoring his spawn. He will 'help' when asked but other than that not really. The phrase that comes out of my mouth most often but not massively is 'can you just do me a favour and do x?'.

He was on his phone this morning doing 'research' in bed whilst I was downstairs giving kids their breakfast, washing up pots afterwards, and taking clothes which had been sat in the washing machine all night and put them in the dryer. I came upstairs and asked dp if he could get them dressed whilst I showered. He was on his phone on the Internet, and kicked up a shit-storm about how he never has any time to himself and how I'm always asking him to do stuff. Lets just say a row followed.

When he comes home late from work which is often, I, generally speaking have bathed kids and put them to bed, sorted out bottles for baby's night feeds which I do and cleared the kitchen. All dp has to do when he gets home from work is heat his tea up, eat it, wash his plate, have a beer and go to bed ready for the next day. I never ask him to do stuff around the home when he comes home late at night.

Today I have pretty much done everything even tho he has had a day off. We've argued about his lack of help around the home and how I nag him. We've attended my friend's child's birthday party, done the food shop and he has gone to his parents house for the night who live about 25 miles away as his family are visiting over Easter so he can go for a drink/get pissed with them. He moaned because I asked if wouldn't mind returning home at a reasonable hour the next day. 'Oh look, I can have a night out for once but with conditions attached. You just don't want me to see my family!' Errmmm.... Nope I've been suggesting you go out for a drink with them all week, you arse! Angry

Before he left the house tonight I was still pretty upset at the events of today and had been crying. After I bathed and put kids to bed (whilst he was on the phone to someone) I took clean clothes (mainly his work clothes) out of the dryer and was putting them away upstairs. He came up, saw me sorting the laundry, didn't bother to offer a hand even tho it was his stuff and asked 'did you empty my work pants pockets before they went in the wash?' I said yes. He asks me did I come across any lottery tickets in the pockets. I said no. He rifled thru the laundry basket despite the fact I was obviously upset, pulled out his work pants, checked the pockets and found some bits of paper which had been washed by accident. I an only assume they were the lotto tickets.

He then left the house in a huff! Not even an apology for being an arse.

I will be up tonite with baby. And up early the morning with oldest son. I have a back log of phone calls I need to make at some point which I can never get round to doing - dp knows this. And yet I seem to get sweet fa 'help' towards our responsibilities. His favourite lines are 'I don't understand why it takes you all day to do what you need to do. You shouldn't have washing to be putting away at night time' or another one is 'how do other mums manage?' Or the killer line which gets pulled out the bag as a last resort 'my mum had 7 kids and ran a business, why can't you cope?'. I can cope just fine ta very much, that's not the issue!!!

Sorry for long post. Aibu to feel absolutely fed up?!? I don't want pity, I just feel like I'm going out of my mind. Can't reason with him, he is irrational. Oh and has never looked after both kids for more than a couple of hours on his own.

OP posts:
DixieNormas · 27/03/2016 21:15

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Message withdrawn at poster's request.

DixieNormas · 27/03/2016 21:15

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Monkeyonmyback · 27/03/2016 21:16

I've since put 'please don't text me'. He put 'last text. As always I shall await your next instruction'. That's how little he respects me

OP posts:
Monkeyonmyback · 27/03/2016 21:18

He's not even sorry, he's just trying to get under my skin. Not gonna happen

OP posts:
Monkeyonmyback · 27/03/2016 21:20

Thanks Dixie. It can be done. You are proof of that. And all due credit to you. I wish I had a bit more courage right now

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DixieNormas · 27/03/2016 21:21

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ClopySow · 27/03/2016 21:23

My ex used to do the can't talk about it can't think straight thing. I reckon he really couldn't think straight because he was so used to me having my head up my arse and not challenging him because he had me believing him that it was all my fault. When things got too much and i did challenge him, he couldn't deal with it because a tiny crack started to appear in his control. It totally spun him out.

He also did the being super nice but never apologising thing.

expatinscotland · 27/03/2016 21:24

I'd tell him the pair of you need to have a break so you can think things through. Because otherwise the pattern will just repeat over and over again.

He doesn't respect you at all. He hasn't for a long time.

DixieNormas · 27/03/2016 21:24

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LeaLeander · 28/03/2016 00:31

You keep rising to the bait, OP. And he knows that you will.

It seems you cannot bring yourself to ignore him and go through an entire day without him dominating your thoughts and actions. I really don't know what the solution is. If someone tried to treat me the way he treats you, he wouldn't even exist nor be worth a single iota of my headspace.

You need to decide what you want. To stay in this stupid, pointless and immature dance of egos with him or to move on.

Monkeyonmyback · 28/03/2016 08:38

I've just told him the truth. I don't love him anymore and that he single-handedly destroyed whatever I felt towards him.

OP posts:
neonrainbow · 28/03/2016 08:44

Good on you!!! It takes a lot of guts to do that. What are you going to do now?

Monkeyonmyback · 28/03/2016 08:47

Fuck!!! I dunno!

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Monkeyonmyback · 28/03/2016 08:54

I think he will probably move out. But I don't know what we will do re kids, maintenance etc. I don't think he's arsed at all. There's nothing behind his eyes.

We had another row this morning and I looked him in the eyes and told him. First time I've been able to look him in the eyes for a long time

OP posts:
TheCrumpettyTree · 28/03/2016 08:54

How did he react?

Monkeyonmyback · 28/03/2016 08:56

He's dead inside. I don't think he ever loved me. He's sat downstairs on his iPad

OP posts:
hesterton · 28/03/2016 08:57

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Monkeyonmyback · 28/03/2016 08:59

He'll be looking at stocks and shares or emails or switching bank accounts presumably.

This is just a guess based on the things he usually looks at

OP posts:
Monkeyonmyback · 28/03/2016 09:00

I don't know what to do now. I'm sat with baby on my bed

OP posts:
hesterton · 28/03/2016 09:03

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

ClopySow · 28/03/2016 09:06

What would you usually do on a monday morning?

Monkeyonmyback · 28/03/2016 09:12

I don't think anyone in rl would get it. How can I explain to someone I've been abused for prolonged periods of time. Mentally I mean. Because to anyone else it would just sound like domestic tiffs. But this goes deeper than that. I was subjected to more of it this morning in front of ds1 so he got upset. It sounds like a row to anyone else but it's not a 'couples row'. It's far greater than that and every 'row' we've had has been not just a disagreement between two opposing people but filled with his poisonous mental abuse.

If someone asked what the row was about it would sound so trivial. A generalisation: housework.

But the way he shuts me down constantly and twists my words and doesn't listen to me and makes me feel like I'm going crazy is mental abuse.

I bought dictaphone type thing of eBay specifically for this reason because it happens all the time. Stupid me didn't get any batteries for it and its been sat in a kitchen cupboard. Truthfully I don't know what I was trying to prove by having it and even if I did secretly record our arguments who I would play it back to. I just know that one thing: there are normal disputes and disagreements in every relationship and there are abnormal ones. How I would have loved for at least one normal one in our whole time together

OP posts:
jeavcike · 28/03/2016 09:19

Get back in touch with women's aid and ask for their advice about what happens next.
It's not going to be easy but it'll be worth it when he's buggered off. Flowers

Monkeyonmyback · 28/03/2016 09:23

I think I will. I don't know if I need emotional support. I feel fairly strong minded at the mo but having said that it could bite me on the arse in years to come.

He's come back into bed and laid down so I've come downstairs. He's just carrying on as if I never just told him an hour ago I don't love him anymore. Was playing with our baby and talking to him like nothing had happened. Hasn't said a word to me tho.

I don't know what to do now. I know it needs to be dealt with but I don't know what to say and frankly don't feel like having another slanging match with him atm

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AppleSetsSail · 28/03/2016 09:24

I just wanted to say Flowers I am terribly sorry for what a hard time you're having.

It can't possibly be harder for you to be on your own, and you'll certainly be entitled to enough to live on. Don't let your own plans be forgotten in all of this, find your next move and go for it.