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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:
AppleSetsSail · 28/03/2016 09:26

Honestly monkey it will be much scarier for him if you carry on in a friendly, dispassionate way and make continuous references to your intended separation. Do not allow yourself to be dragged into further confrontation. Remain above the fray.

AppleSetsSail · 28/03/2016 09:27

I could have better said 'intermittent' than 'continous'.

Monkeyonmyback · 28/03/2016 09:31

Thanks apple. It's hard to not be dragged into anything when he is a goady twat with always something to say no matter how far-fetched and ridiculous. He is a button pusher that's for sure. He will say anything to get a rise. I don't know if he realises/cares how utterly stupid his comments are. On the one hand they are clever in the sense that they do what they are designed to do. Provoke/antagonise/gas light/minimise. How anyone has not seriously injured him by now I will never know.

OP posts:
ClopySow · 28/03/2016 09:35

Just keep going as you are. Don't engage. Don't rise to him. Repeat that it's over.

ClopySow · 28/03/2016 09:38

And i promise it's easier living on your own with normal daily stresses than living with someone messing with your head every day.

PrimalLass · 28/03/2016 09:48

I also started dropping in hints that was thinking of going it alone which took the wind out of his sails.

I did that. I would say "Well when you are in your one-bedroom flat in you can do what you like."

TheCrumpettyTree · 28/03/2016 09:56

Don't forget you don't need to justify it to anyone, you don't need to give a reason. You deserve to be happy and not lead a miserable life.

neonrainbow · 28/03/2016 10:05

Women's aid is a good call. They will have heard it all before and might be able to help you make a plan to get him out.

AppleSetsSail · 28/03/2016 10:14

His goadyness is not your problem anymore. Once you accept this, you'll be impervious to it.

DisgraceToTheYChromosome · 28/03/2016 11:18

Hi OP. I skipped to the last page, and I saw that you've made a start. Here's some advice from a paranoid old git.

Install SMS Backup and Restore, and Automatic Call Recorder on your phone. Upload daily to the cloud. Put a timed block on your phone, because he knows your routine and he'll call at the most inconvenient moments. Once he's gone, email contact only. All breaches of pickup to be treated as a fail. He'll want to see the baby in your dwelling: fuck that. Your phone is a better recorder than a dictaphone.

Courage.

AppleSetsSail · 28/03/2016 11:28

Great advice from Disgrace. Flowers

We're all rooting for you, Monkey.

DisgraceToTheYChromosome · 28/03/2016 11:36

Thank you Apple. Not terribly good at emotion, but I'm shit hot on pessimism and information management.

Tatiana11235 · 28/03/2016 11:40

Well done OP. I imagine you are terrified right now and at loss. Stay strong and try not to back down. Yes you will lose his financial support but you will get your sanity back. You come across as very capable and organised. Good luck to you! Flowers

Writerwannabe83 · 28/03/2016 11:49

OP - you are strong and you are brilliant!!!!

His reaction to all this is not your concern, if he wants to pretend it isn't happening or that you're not serious then that's his problem.

My sister was with a guy for 10 years, had 2 children together, everyone thought they were happy and the relationship was fine etc but then one day she broke down to me, disclosed the true horror she lived in and that she needed to leave him. He was emotionally, financially and verbally abusive and it also turned out he was having an affair.

I asked her why she hadn't told me or told anyone for so long and she said she had been ashamed and didn't think anyone would believe her.

The children were about 4 and 6 when she left him and it was the best thing she ever did.

DisappointedOne · 28/03/2016 11:52

Missing the point a bit a lot but it doesn't sound like your eldest is ready for potty training.

petalsandstars · 28/03/2016 12:55

If he goes into online banking then I'd make sure you have money in your own account that he can't access. He could clear out joint account claiming it's his money and you'd have no money and no way of getting it back.

Monkeyonmyback · 28/03/2016 21:37

Thanks all for the advice particularly re the SMS installer. Only just looked at these messages it's been an eventful day.

Still unsure about his plans to leave, but at present he is still here. We have talked and I told him I don't know if I could ever love him again. The arrangements are very unclear at this moment in time.

To top the day off my parents invited all of us round to dinner at theirs as my godparents are visiting from Scotland so we had to go round and put on a front so to speak.

My baby has a viral infection in his throat, nothing serious but I went to the GPs last week and she was reluctant to give him antibiotics as she thought it would clear up in a few days. To me it appears to be getting worse so I have an appointment tonight with the out of hours gp to get him checked over again. He is fast asleep atm so it will mean disturbing him to take him there. Appointment isn't for a good while yet tho as they are busy - bloody bank holidays!

So I'm gonna get myself a brew in the meantime. Thanks for all the support. Break ups are never fun especially with kids involved so I hope we can come to an amicable agreement

OP posts:
Monkeyonmyback · 28/03/2016 21:39

Re potty training ds1 has been doing brilliant lately telling me when he needs to go and sitting on his potty without me asking. I think the past few days he has taken a backwards step and I wouldn't be at all surprised if it was down to the atmosphere in this house

OP posts:
DisappointedOne · 28/03/2016 22:12

My baby has a viral infection in his throat, nothing serious but I went to the GPs last week and she was reluctant to give him antibiotics as she thought it would clear up in a few days.

Antibiotics will do precisely nothing for a virus. And doctors don't routinely test for to see whether something is a viral/biological infection.

Hope your little one feels better soon and that you get some sort of resolution to things.

DisappointedOne · 28/03/2016 22:13

You know your child but if they're ready for potty training it usually takes days rather than weeks.

ClopySow · 28/03/2016 22:27

My eldest was the same. Doing really well with potty training then took 10 steps back when we split up. He got back on it within a few months.

Monkeyonmyback · 30/03/2016 21:44

Sorry not been on for a couple of days. Been awake past couple of nights all night with a coughing baby, I'm shattered.

'D'p has been at work so I've not seen much of him but we've not really had chance to discuss stuff. Currently he is downstairs on settee which will be his bed for now.

Dreading having the talk as to separation especially cos of my eldest but we need to figure something out. I'm exhausted

OP posts:
Pufflehuff · 01/04/2016 08:45

Hope things are OK, Monkey. Did you have the talk yet?

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