Meet the Other Phone. Child-safe in minutes.

Meet the Other Phone.
Child-safe in minutes.

Buy now

Please or to access all these features

AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Sleep, DH and I (a bit first world problems...)

12 replies

Uttertosh6253 · 10/04/2018 12:21

We have 3 DC under 3. DH works in a busy, high end events job and “entertains” a lot at night. In general, some nights he may work til 11 then go out all night with clients and come back at 8am. He doesn’t drink, so is not drunk. He’s just a workaholic. I feel that he could cut down on the entertaining but he insists he can’t. That it’s what gives him an edge - to babysit the clients when they visit from other countries and sit in their hotel rooms talking to them, or watching them play black jack in a casino (apparently a lot of them like to do this)

The DC are going through a period where they simply do not sleep. The nights DH does sleep here he does not get up with the DC. So effectively his sleep deprivation always trumps mine, even though I am up with the DC every night. I do all care for them, meals, bath, bedtime etc.

I have 5 hours of childcare every weekday and I try to use it to further my education/career so I can go back to work next year. In some of those hours I do actual work, although initially i do not get paid as much as DH. On the days when I have had a run of exhausting nights I simply can’t function to go to classes or meet work people and I have to cancel people or catch up on sleep when I have childcare which frustrates me as I feel my progress is hampered.

DH says I should be using the childcare to rest all the time, given the D.C. sleeping habits. instead of complaining to him that he entertains clients too much and is away from home too much or expecting him to take the role of childcare at night while he needs to work.

He says I need to put the work stuff on hold until the DC are older at school and take advantage of childcare to rest.

I feel this reduces me to a purely functional maternal robot who does nothing other than care for DC and cannot get back into the workplace.

WIBU?

OP posts:
Uttertosh6253 · 10/04/2018 18:45

Anyone?

OP posts:
Quartz2208 · 10/04/2018 18:47

No - what does he do other than his business?

Cambionome · 10/04/2018 18:49

That sounds incredibly tough. Sad

windchimesabotage · 10/04/2018 18:50

I think both of you need to compromise. He needs to be doing more childcare but I also think he has a point in that this situation is not forever so you could put your studying on hold until the children are in school.
Having three under 3s at home must be so hard and its not right at all that he is not helping you.
I think you should use your childcare to sleep in this situation but that also he needs to agree to be there to help more often.
Its not fair that you have to make sacrifices and he makes none at all.
Its implied you are both relying on his income at the moment? So I can see that he would want to work hard however he needs to balance that with helping out at least a bit.

InfiniteSheldon · 10/04/2018 18:50

Get a sleep trainer in, keep using your childcare to improve your career prospects, book yourself a hotel room and leave him to it once a month Flowers

PaulDacreRimsGeese · 10/04/2018 18:59

That must be extremely hard.

Before considering the issue of which of you should make a sacrifice on the career front, is there money to pay for any overnight childcare? If there is, that would be the obvious solution since it wouldn't require either of you to compromise your work.

If not, then it becomes more circumstantial. For example, what kind of financial contribution, if any, does he expect you to make once the DC are at school and when? If he's not too bothered about this, that gives him a stronger case than it would be if he'd like you back at work and earning as soon as the youngest is settled in reception.

cryingbehindsunglasses · 10/04/2018 19:01

Well if you have 3 under 3 who are not sleeping, in order to stay sane, for the next few years you have the following optipns:

  • dh works less and does more childcare
  • you get more paid childcare in
  • you use the current 5 hours to rest / sort everything child related out and do some stuff for you if time.

Depends which of these is most feasible for you.

PaulDacreRimsGeese · 10/04/2018 19:07

I must say as well, if I were getting that little sleep at night, being able to snatch a bit during the day wouldn't be enough in the long run. Going through (mercifully short) broken sleep periods, I found that daytime sleep didn't compensate for not getting what I needed at night.

NameChange30 · 10/04/2018 19:10

I’m sorry but if he was really good at his job he could build relationships with clients without staying out all night with them. I think it’s just an excuse and he is mixing business with pleasure, he enjoys it.

It’s not fair for him to leave all the parenting to you and expect you to sacrifice your modest career goals and social life (both of which are already limited due to fitting around DCs) in order to rest just enough to be able to continue doing all the nights by yourself. He’s expecting you just to survive, putting everything second to the children, while he is living it up doing his fun career. That’s not fair.

Sorry for long rambly post. Short version: he is being unreasonable Wink

Pluckedpencil · 10/04/2018 19:14

You had me at 3 under 3. Anything written after your first sentence was irrelevant. If your dh is also working all day, then he is taking the piss.

Baubletrouble43 · 10/04/2018 19:27

I agree with AnotherEmma. Sounds like he's shirking. Wonder if he'd be such a " workaholic " if his work involved mixing concrete/ emptying bins/ scrubbing ovens rather than socialising in a casino. I suspect not.

NameChange30 · 10/04/2018 20:16

Ha, exactly. It’s not exactly work, is it?!

New posts on this thread. Refresh page
Swipe left for the next trending thread