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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

To expect stbxh to take a week off work in summer holidays

64 replies

clpsmum · 19/06/2019 20:22

I've asked my stbxh to take some time off work during the summer to spend with his children and to give me a break. I asked him to take a total of three days off. He's point blank refused and I'm so angry but not sure if my anger is justified!

OP posts:
SupermassiveBlackHo · 20/06/2019 09:42

Pondering. I wouldn't take no for an answer. I'd tell him I'd be dropping them there at date/time and will pick them back up again at other date/time. What he does with them in that time is his responsibility.

SupermassiveBlackHo · 20/06/2019 09:43

Why is it appalling advice to force a co-parent to actually parent? Why should the woman have to do 90% of care when a parent should be 50/50?

clpsmum · 20/06/2019 09:50

@PoesyCherish it's difference because the live with me and spend 6 days a nights a week with me. He had the whole of December and whole of February off work where he didn't see them. I've asked him to take them for three days over the summer and I will have them the other six weeks. I think that's massively different

OP posts:
EveryFlightBeginsWithAFall · 20/06/2019 09:50

Op has already said he works away mon-fri she can’t just drop them there

If I told my ex I was just going to drop them with him he’d make sure he wasn’t there. If I just turned up he’d cause a scene

And why should he get a cm drop or some child benefit to cover having his own children for a few days in the holiday?

The nights he has them are way under the yearly threshold for a drop in cm

clpsmum · 20/06/2019 09:52

@PoesyCherish and it's not that I don't want them for a week I've got a three day break from them as six week is a long and expensive time to keep them all occupied. It seems that I am the only pre t interested in ensuring my children maintain a relationship with their father

OP posts:
clpsmum · 20/06/2019 09:55

**parent. Sorry for al the typos!

OP posts:
timeisnotaline · 20/06/2019 10:07

How is this any different to you not wanting to see them for a week? After all, you're not saying you need him to cover childcare, you're saying you want a break from them.
Really? Do you have kids? If the op saw them as much as her ex does and was offered a week I think she’d break landspeed records. That’s how it’s different. It’s pretty fucking poor parenting to not want to spend multiple days with your children EVER. YEAR AFTER YEAR.

EveryFlightBeginsWithAFall · 20/06/2019 11:48

I would also love a week of them with their dad over the holiday

As you say it’s an expensive time and can be hard work occupying them all

user1471590586 · 20/06/2019 11:52

How old are the kids? As they get into their teens they will start asking their dad themselves why he isn't doing anything with them.

clpsmum · 20/06/2019 11:53

You're right I miss them when I'm not worn them and what angers me is he claims to and then doesn't want them! One of my boys is severely autistic and I love him to tiny pieces and wouldn't change him for the world but it can be hard going especially in the holidays. He's been given two days of respite throughout the holidays and I offered their dad these days with the other two to try and make his life easier but he still doesn't want to take them

OP posts:
WhoKnewBeefStew · 20/06/2019 11:58

My ex is like this, he has them eow and that's it. He refused to have them at all during the holidays but he could completely manage two weeks off work to do his hobby Angry

I found my life became so much easier as soon as I stopped expecting him to be a parent and put his dc first! I now just expect the eow and don't bother pushing for anything else. However I now no longer do anything to help him. He's slowly being phased out of his dcs lives due to his own behaviour. If he wanted them more I wouldn't have an issue with it, but he's decided it's too much hassle and as such, the kids are getting fed up with him and are now realising that he's not the 'be all and end all' and he's actually just a bit of a lazy prick.

Lompopo · 20/06/2019 15:57

I am in the same boat. So far STBXH has taken 1 of his days holiday to be with DS. And has no plans to take more (this year at least). It’s really sad for DS who gets quite upset/angry about it.
On the plus side, at least I no longer live with the arrogant self-centred a-hole.

happyhillock · 20/06/2019 16:13

My EXH alway's took the kid's for 2 week's at the 6 week school holidays, him and his new wife would take them on holiday, he would take them for a long weekend at easter break, i alway's had them christmas day, he had boxing day and the day after, he alway's said i was entitled to a break, he is a great father, not so good as a husband.

Graphista · 20/06/2019 16:52

Sadly you can't force love.

I spent too many years bending over backwards to facilitate dds relationship with my ex and even then he frequently let her down.

It got to a point I could no longer afford to do this and dd got wise to the dynamic and actually asked me to stop - she wanted to know he wanted to see her, cared about her. She also asked me to stop covering for him - which I had been doing thinking it was better for her. She said that actually it made it harder for her express her anger and frustration and hurt at his behaviour, that he didn't deserve protecting and we should both be honest about him from that point on.

Very quickly it went from him seeing her 5-6 times a year due to my organisation and expense (it was costing me more than even what he should have been paying in cm which he didn't pay consistently) to once a year for a couple of years and at this point (dd now 18) he hasn't seen her for severely years purely because he Cba making even his own arrangements and she's lucky if she gets a generic birthday card - late!

It is utterly heartbreaking to see her feeling as if she is lacking in some way because her own bloody father makes sod all effort to have a relationship with her.

We do have a close relationship though and certainly in the last couple of years we've had conversations where she has said that she really appreciates all I've done and how hard it was for me.

One of her friends is currently going through her parents breaking up and the dad is actually stepping up. The friend has at times expressed frustration and disappointment if he's had to cancel plans due to work (he works shifts/zero hours contract) and dd does point out to her that actually he's a pretty good dad and sees them whenever he can, pays maintenance and buys them things they need in consultation with mum.

Dds dad has recently been in touch trying to re-establish contact but it turned out to be he wanted a favour of dd and that was why. This was so hurtful to her. In addition he didn't even get his backside organised anyway for dd to go to theirs and the plans fell through. I'd warned dd not to book travel plans until she heard for definite her dad had organised his end and she was glad she took this advice. He'd have left her seriously out of pocket and not given a shit!

Op unfortunately all you can do is support your DC, don't do him any unnecessary favours and accept you can't rely on him. I wish I had done the latter far earlier than I did.

It's not fair, it's not right but as pp are saying you reap what you sow.

You will have a lovely close, appreciative relationship with your DC, you'll have great memories of the things you've done together (even the things that at the time are done eg out of financial necessity kids can see in a very different light. My dd still fondly remembers an "indoor campfire picnic" we had once when I was too skint to top up the meter and was trying to make the best of a bad situation).

He will not have that closeness, they won't confide in him, they won't have warm memories of daft events and when he's older and wants to reconnect they won't be keen - I've seen this with friends my own age and slightly younger who had absent dads who suddenly when they neared retirement age/2nd wife left and they were lonely tried to get their now grown kids to fulfil THEIR needs. Those adult DC very much think "he Cba with me when I needed him why should I go out my way just cos it suits him now?"

I wish I'd let him gradually fade out of dds life when she was much younger it would have been much easier for her. I think the advice often given to do all you can to facilitate a relationship with your child's father following a split even if they're showing clear signs of not being interested is wrong. If it's obvious they're not interested instead give them enough rope... They'll either step up or they'll disappear while the DC are relatively young.

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