Last night I asked my DH if he could take the day off work to help me out with the kids today. I have had a cold and have lost my voice for three days - I'm feeing drained. Last night both children (13month and 4 yo) were up all night being sick every half an hour so had little sleep. The bath was full of dirty bedclothes needing rinsing before washing. The day before, I felt I was shouting at the kids too much because I was feeling unwell and had less patience.
So he said he would take the day off as he only had one meeting at lunch that could be moved. He hardly ever has sick days so I presumed he would just 'pull a sickie' to help me. We don't leave near to any relatives and have no emergency childcare options in place.
In the morning he says he forgot he's got another meeting in the morning that's very important, so he's going to go into work until the second meeting (the one he was going to cancel) has finished and come home for about 2pm to take the kids off me.
He leaves the house and comes straight back indoors saying he feels guilty leaving me and has told his boss that the kids and me are ill, so he's going to work from home. The reality is that he just sat on his laptop all day. We had to keep out of his way. I had to keep the kids really quiet when he had his two 'meeting' conference calls (because it would be embarrassing if they heard the kids). He gave me two 30 minute slots of time to myself all day and I spent the rest trying to clean up sick, with them crying and moaning, whilst feeing ill.
AIBU to expect him to just tell work HE was ill, so he would not have been expected to work? Or to tell them he wouldn't be working due to our illnesses? How is 'working from home' helpful to me at all? If anything it caused me more problems. I know people will say they don't have opportunity for this kind of help from a DH, but, he hardly ever has sick days and he could have helped.